Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Chairman of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited and promoter of the Essel Group of Companies Dr Subhash Chandra on Friday asked Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to allot five cities from the state so that they can be turned into smart cities.

Speaking on the the concluding day of the "Invest Madhya Pradesh - Global Investors Summit - 2014" at Indore, Dr Chandra said, "I was personally thrilled to hear the announcement of 100 smart cities by Prime Minister Narendra Modi because we were also thinking on those lines."

"Give us existing five cities, it can be through competitive bidding also, so that we can build them into smart cities."

Dr Chandra said that a total estimate of Rs 7,500 crore will be spent on building the cities into smart cities. "We want to do it through PPP model," he said.

He further said that Essel Group plans to invest around Rs 50,000 crores. So far, Rs 5,000 crore investment has been made.

Dr Chandra said, "In our quest to achieve something new, we have set a target that by 2020 we will have 130 crore Zee Network viewers across the globe."

Currently, Zee network is seen in 170 countries across the globe and there are 800 million viewers.

"We have reached 35 million American homes. In two-three years, we will reach 105 million American homes," he added.

Congratulating the government and people of MP the ZMCL Chairman said, "People of Madhya Pradesh always make you feel that you are very much part of the state."