JOIN USSmart City Plan should be 'transparent': MP
MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said that the Smart City Plan (SCP) should focus on including Mangaluru in the top 20 cities that will be selected in the second phase of the project.
“The plan should be transparent and care should be taken to preserve the indigenous culture,” he demanded.
The MP was speaking at a programme organised to gather public opinion on the smart city project in the City on Sunday.
“The reason why cities like Bengaluru and Mysuru are not selected under the smart city programme is that they have already revived hundreds of crores of grants under the JnNURM project,” he added.
Mangaluru South legislator J R Lobo said that the City has been selected for the programme on its own ‘ability’, and on the basis of its USP. “The fund of Rs 1,000 crore – comprising Rs 500 crore each from the State and Central governments – is to be utilised as the catalyst amount. More funds need to be generated through investments, towards an integrated development of the City,” he said, adding that efforts will be taken to create additional employment opportunities.
Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner H N Gopalakrishna said that the government has released Rs two crore towards the preparation of the smart city concept plan and appointment of consultancy. “A concept plan has to be developed by the administration based on the vision statements contributed by the people and needs to be submitted to the government at the earliest,” he added.
The draft plan submitted to the State government will be judged by the high-level screening committee headed by the chief secretary to the State government and the final report will be submitted to the Central government before December 15.
Dilip Kumar, the vice-president of IIDC, New Delhi, and the consultant for the Smart City project for MCC, has said that, so far, only 450 responses have been received through MyGov.in website, which is disappointing and requested the public to contribute their suggestions.
Suggestions such as setting up of a power generation unit exclusively for the City using renewable sources of energy, desalination of sea water to meet the drinking water needs of the City, setting up of a solar park, sea-based wind turbines, construction of a multipurpose stadium, elevation of the air and railway transport systems, development of medical tourism and formation of a forum comprising NRIs and banking sector for investment plans were put across by the public.
Deputy Mayor Purushottam Chitrapur and MUDA chairperson Ibrahim Kodijal were present among others on the occasion.