Pact to develop Varanasi as ‘smart city’

Mayor of Kyoto Daisaku Kadokawa delivering a presentation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Kyoto, Japan on August 31.  Ambassador of India to Japan, Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa is also seen
Mayor of Kyoto Daisaku Kadokawa delivering a presentation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Kyoto, Japan on August 31.
Ambassador of India to Japan, Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa is also seen

KYOTO: Nursing the ambition of creating 100 smart cities in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his Japan visit with a pact being signed under which his constituency Varanasi will be developed as a ‘smart city’ in partnership with Kyoto.

The Partner City Affiliation MoU marks the launch of smart heritage city program between the two countries as a detailed roadmap of cooperation will be prepared which will form the base for further understanding.
Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who made a special gesture of flying to Kyoto to meet his Indian counterpart, oversaw the ceremony where the pact was signed by Indian Ambassador to Japan Deepa Wadhwa and Daisaku Kadokawa, Mayor of Kyoto, the Japanese ‘smart city’ which is a confluence of heritage and modernity.

The Kyoto Mayor made a detailed presentation to Modi on how the ancient tradition of Japan’s cultural capital has been preserved while building it into a modern city.

Kyoto, with around 2000 temples and shrines, has been at the crossroads of history since the end of the Nara Period (794 A.D.), it was the capital of Japan for over 1,000 years till the Emperor moved to Tokyo.
Under the MoU, both cities shall endeavor to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the agreed fields based on principles of equality and mutual respect and benefit and continuously exchange information and opinion in the agreed areas and cooperate in important fields.