The newly sworn-in Minister of Town Planning and Water Resources Rauf Hakeem  highlighted that Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has granted his approval to commence Kandy North Water Supply Project for which the government has already allocated 3 billion rupees.

Speaking at a discussion held in Katugasthota today, Minister Hakeem noted that India under a plan of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already begun forming smart cities and the country is on to set up 100 smart cities.

Minister Hakeem said that Sri Lanka's central hill capital of Kandy will be developed as the first 'Smart City' in the island.

Providing adequate water supply is one of the core infrastructure elements in a smart city in addition to  uninterrupted electricity supply, proper sanitation, including solid waste management, efficient public transport, affordable housing, good governance, health and education, sustainable environment, and safety and security of citizens.

There is no end point to a smarty city, it is rather a process, or series of steps, by which cities become more 'live-able' and resilient and, hence, able to respond quicker to new challenges