New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS): The government Wednesday said it has started work on a new policy on smart cities towards enabling citizens enjoy modern civic life in line with its stated goal of developing 100 smart cities.

“We are in the process of finalising the framework for smart cities. It is a huge exercise and all possible pitfalls, effects and other factors are being considered before announcement of the policy," Urban Development (UD) secretary Shankar Aggarwal said at a real estate conference here organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"There will be many opportunities for the private sector in the proposed smart city project," he added.

Builders and developers for the smart cities would be adequately incentivised, the senior official said, adding that while two or three new cities would come up as smart cities, primarily existing cities would be taken up for the smart city project.

Aggarwal said the major component of the project will be the provision of smart infrastructure - roads, pedestrian pathways, public toilets, water and sewer networks, street lighting, signal systems, gas supply, solid waste management systems, drainage network and safety and security devices.

"The prime minister has already asked the urban development ministry to look into all old laws. We are going to cut down on those. We have to make it citizen-centric rather than regulatory-centric," the ministry's topmost official said.