Rajshahi and Cox’s Bazar will be the first smart cities of the country according to the decision of the first Smart Bangladesh Task Force meeting chaired by the Prime Minister. And a2i is a consultant in this work of building a green, clean and smart city.
As part of this, an agreement was signed between a2i and Rajshahi City Corporation-RCC in the conference room of the ICT Division on Tuesday. According to the agreement, a2i will prepare the action plan and budget by developing 3 guide lines and finding 7 questions. The company will also develop soft solutions for smart management of digital services.
The ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak and newly elected RCC Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman signed the agreement in the presence of Md. Saiful Islam, Joint Director of a2i Project and Rajshahi City Corporation CEO Dr. A.B.M. Sharif Uddin signed the MoU.
In his speech, the RCC Mayor mentioned the plan of ‘face detector camera’ to build smart city, ‘survey with drone’ to collect holding tax.
While speaking as the Chairman, the State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said at the MoU Signing Ceremony that Prime Minister has given instructions to turn villages into smart villages in the Smart Bangladesh Task Force meeting. As part of this, Rajshahi and Cox’s Bazar cities will be made smart cities under the pilot project in the first phase. In this case, Rajshahi will be a paperless and contactless smart city by 2028 within the smart transformation of services in 2024 and 2025 in three phases. Through this, Rajshahi will be a green, clean, transparent and serene city.
The State Minister also said that a ‘Smart Employment Fair’ will be held in Rajshahi in September. He said that the Prime Minister’s innovation and entrepreneurial culture has created an awakening across the country to build a smart Bangladesh.
Also, a2i Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury highlighted the example of smart city in the event. As a nation of intelligent problem solvers, he emphasized setting up an Innovation Lab in Rajshahi to solve problems locally and making Rajshahi a United Nations city of zero digital discrimination. Besides, MCC CEO Ashraf Khan highlighted the issue of digital transformation of 30 civic services of Rajshahi City.