Smart City: DPRs getting ready as 6 cities vie for place in phase one

Six cities of the State will vie for a space among the 20 cities across the country that will be selected by the Centre for development works under phase one of the Smart City programme for 2015-16.

Addressing reporters here, Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake said that vision documents and detailed project reports (DPRs) for the six cities, the preparation of which is underway, will have to be submitted to the Centre by December 15.

The State government has set aside Rs two crore for each of these cities - Mangaluru, Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad, Shivamogga, Tumakuru and Davangere - for public engagement and to garner their opinion.

Only the best projects will get shortlisted for implementation.

100 cities
The Centre has selected 100 cities across the country. In the first phase, development works will be taken up in 20 cities.

 In the second and third phases, 40 cities each will be taken up for development.
He said that district incharge secretaries of these cities have been appointed as nodal officers, who, along with private consultants appointed by the State, will prepare the vision document and DPR.

The six IAS officers are: Bharat Lal Meena (Mangaluru); Ekroop Caur (Belagavi), Tushar Giri Nath (Shivamogga), Manivannan (Hubballi-Dharwad), N Manjunath Prasad (Davangere) and Shalini Rajneesh (Tumakuru).

The vision document will be prepared keeping in mind the overall development of the corporation area concerned and development of a separate township.

As Bengaluru city did not get selected under the Smart City project, the department has requested the government to let it utilise the funds sanctioned under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) scheme, for the development of Bengaluru.

The minister said that property tax collection in the State, especially 11 municipal corporations including Mysuru, Davangere, Hubballi-Dharwad and Mangaluru, was not satisfactory.

Agency appointed
 A private agency has been appointed to survey properties whose owners have been evading property tax and bring them under the tax net. By streamlining tax collection, it would double in the days to come, he added.