Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) along with Nispana Innovative Platforms is organizing the 2nd Edition Sustainable Smart Cities India conference on November 16 and 17, at the Dr TMA Pai International Convention Centre, to bring in global expertise to ensure that the city is selected in the second stage of the Smart City Challenge, said the Commissioner of MCC Dr H N Gopalakrishna in a press meet held at the MCC premises here on November 14.
Mangaluru, one of 98 shortlisted cities in the first stage of city selection in the Smart City Challenge, currently attracting global investment, will create new job opportunities, improve communications and infrastructure, decrease pollution and ultimately improve the quality of living. Some of the top challenges will include devising a fool-proof plan to develop smart cities, meaningful public-private partnership, increasing renewable energy, water supply, effective waste management, traffic management, meeting power demand, urban mobility, ICT connectivity, e-governance, reforming policies etc while preparing for new threats that can emerge with the implementation of these new technologies.
This conference will also discuss on the area based development and pan city projects that has been included in Mangaluru’s smart city proposal. The citizens of Mangaluru have already shared their suggestions and priorities on the projects based on their immediate requirements.
This conference will have participation of the city’s Governing Council, Mentors, Patrons, Advisors, Consultants, Industrialists, Developers, Icons, Citizens, etc. who will be contributing towards making Mangaluru a Smart City while retaining its rich heritage and culture. Mangaluru City Corporation also invites its contenders to learn from this highly focused 2 day conference.
Speaking on the occasion Gideon Schmerling said, “Smart city should not be concentrated more on technology. It’s more about people and how the city can provide them with better service. The main purpose here is to gather all our knowledge together and give better service to residents of city, better interactions between the people and the municipality. Using technology that we already have, for example a smartphone, could be used for this, and people would be able to interact and access the services without coming to the municipality.”
MCC Mayor Jacintha Vijaya Alfred; Deputy Mayor Purushotham Chitrapura; MCC Joint Commissioner Gokuldas Nayak; Director, Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, Israel Gideon Schmerling and others were also present.
