Mangaluru: Mayor Jacintha Alfred held a press meet for the representatives of advertisement agencies and media houses regarding the preparations for the smart city project, at the MCC hall here, on September 19.
Addressing the representatives, MCC Commissioner Dr H N Gopalkrishna said that people think that smart city means there will be all the facilities but to qualify as a smart city, we need to meet certain requirements. Suggestions, Opinion from the people of DK will be accepted till October 16. The deadline to send the proposal to the government is December 15, 2015.
Consultants from the Union government presented the proposals and requirements for smart city to the gathering. According to studies, in the near future, cities will account for 90% of the global population, 80% of wealth creation and 60% of total energy consumption. A smart city is credibly safe, clean and green, which is economically strong and culturally vibrant. It should have the characteristics of economy, mobility, governance, people, environment and living; social, cultural and economic sustainability; and comprehensive development in physical, social, institutional and economic infrastructure.
Two types of smart cities can be developed – Greenfield Smart City (a city developed on virgin/undeveloped land) and Brownfield Smart City (Retrofitting and redevelopment of an existing city). The smart city mission of the central government is to develop an existing Brownfield city into a smart city with PAN city projects and area based developments such as retrofitting, redevelopment and Greenfield development.
Mangaluru has been selected as one of the 100 cities eligible to be developed as a Smart City and 20 cities out of these shall be selected to become smart cities in the Ist Phase.
The Smart City proposal has to be prepared and submitted for the “Smart city challenge” to get selected as Smart City in the I Phase. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) shall be created for implementation of Smart city proposals. The SPV would be headed by a full time CEO and nominees of central government, state government and ULB on its Board. SPV will be promoted by state and ULB having 50:50 equity share holding. Private sector/financial institutions could be considered for taking equity stake in the SPV.
The smart city proposal has to be prepared in the following manner, such as City profile, Citizens engagement (Citizens participation), Vision and sub goals, Strategic plan, PAN city proposal, Area based proposal, Implementation frame work, Financing plan, Benefits and impacts, Process and team work, City profile, Base line information (13 criteria for state level selection), Performance indicator (last three years), Operational efficiency, Traffic situation, Administrative efficiency, Availability of affordable housing, Desk review (Review of available Secondary data), Mapping (of information and data to create a Suitable Base Map) and City level self-assessment (of the 24 features of Smart City).
There are 24 features of a smart city. They are Citizen participation, Identity and culture, Economy and employment, Education, Health, Mixed use, Compact, Public and open spaces, Housing and inclusiveness, Transport, Walkable, IT connectivity, ICT enabled government services, Energy supply, Energy source, Water supply, Water management, Waste water management, Air quality, Energy efficiency, Underground electric wiring, Sanitation, Waste management, and Safety and security.
The features of the Smart City shall be assessed in the following manner, Current scenario for city for each of the features (qualitative assessment of city with quantitative indicators, if available); Current scenario for retrofitting and redevelopment areas for each of the features; Project the scenario to be achieved for each of the features (for City level, Retrofitting area, Redevelopment area and Greenfield development area) and state the initiatives undertaken by which the scenario to be achieved is envisaged.
“To create awareness among the people about the project and the concept of developing the Mangaluru as a Smart City, we will call zone level meetings. We will keep suggestion boxes in every zone and suggestions from every citizen will be invited. We will not get time to review every suggestion but we will train all the 60 ward corporators and the MCC officials so that they can reach their respective wards and brief on the Smart City. We will also advertise on local news channels and try to bring awareness so that the every person in society understands what a smart city is,” said the Mayor.
Mayor Jacintha also said that the media plays a vital role in bringing awareness in the society. “To make Mangaluru a Smart city, we need more support from the media. The people as well as media representatives should give their feedback in making Mangaluru a smart city.”
If Mangalore will be selected, the state and the union governments will provide Rs 100 crore each every year for 5 years, and the funds will be granted from 2015-16 towards equity share of ULB in the SPV. GOK would also provide equal amount towards its equity share in the SPV.
Additional funds shall be provide by ULB or from collection of user fees, beneficiary charges, impact fees, land monetisation, debt, loans, etc. and other provisions mentioned in the guidelines including private sector (PPP). The mission will be monitored by an Apex committee (AC) at national level, High power steering committee (HPSC) at state level and Smart city advisory committee (SCAC) at city level (the CEO of the SPV will be convener of SCAC).
Deputy Mayor Purushotham, assistant commissioner Gokul Das, representatives from the media and advertisement agencies were also present.
Dear readers, Today’s media has lost its objectives. In undivided district which is also considered intelligent peoples it has lost its glory. If one analyse the pictures being loaded in the articles,unruly social elements giving statements ‘Mangalore press club’ is always in the background. How does objective journalism became part of the social menace which interfere in our daily life? How does x-rated movie release become part of the journalism? In undivided district the media need to do retrospective that how much does they contributed to unifying the religions? Most of them are interested in ‘Breaking news’ rather than ‘breaking… Read more »
Dear Mayor Jacintha please come to Jeppu Kudupady Road and see the work being done by your corporator Ms Appi over a small area on the gutter for nearly 45 days and not yet completed. Talking big is good but working for the same would be BETTER.
Now that many cities including mangaluru are trying to be ‘smart’ cities, all the jokers should take their anganawaadi tests more seriously. City mayor and other authorities may relocate jokers in the town as an easy first step to increase the overall IQ of the city!! smiles…