Workshop to train ‘Officials’ to be ‘Smart’ to build a ‘Smart City’
Mangaluru: You can’t expect a City to turn into a “Smart City” if there are no “Smart Officials” to take care of it. In order to train and make them knowledgeable about how to build a ‘Smart City” a workshop named “Karnataka Smart City Project”-a 2-day workshop has been planned, which is aimed to get all the city senior management teams of selected smart cities together to brainstorm for the mammoth task of implementing the Smart City projects under Govt. of India’s 100 Smart City program. This meet has brought all the senior city officials, World bank consulting resources, a Team from South Korea, Senior officials of the government of Karnataka and KUIDF together to discuss and finalize the implementation plan and arrangements for the Smart City Project of the State.
The inauguration of the 2-day workshop ‘Smart Cities Mission-Karnataka’-Planning and Initiation Meet for ICT Solutions held at Hotel Ocean Pearl-Mangaluru to be held on 3 and 4 February was done today by Chief Guest Roshan Baig- Hon’ble State Minister for Urban Development and Haj, along with other dignitaries on the dais namely- MLA’s JR Lobo and Moideen Bawa; Suresh Ballal-MUDA Chairman, Harinath- MCC Mayor, V Ponnuraj IAS- MD, KUIDFC, Dr K G Jagadeesha IAS- DG, Dakshina Kannada, Mohammed Nazeer- MCC Commissioner, Shashank Ojha- Task Team Leader, World Bank; Mayors of Belgavi, Hubbali/Dharwad, Tumkur, Davangere,and Shivamogga, and MCC corporators.
Prior to the inauguration, the programme began with a prayer song invoking God’s blessings, followed by opening remarks of this programme by V Ponnuraj, where he said, ” Through this workshop we will develop a Smart City ICT solutions plan for individual smart city components and their detailed implementation plan for Sc ICT Solutions complete with timelines, budgetary allocation, implementation plan, capacity building plan etc; we will deliberate on the evolving smart city knowledge platform, some of the prototypes that are under development for smart cities, possibilities of study tours to other smart cities like Seoul, identifying specific projects across city verticals and the scaling up methodology for the proven pilots”
He further said, ” The workshop will also bring together all the city officials from various ‘implementing agencies’ and put in perspective the ‘common implementation arrangements’ for the project. This shall facilitate creating a ‘Common SC Road Map’ for all agencies involved in the project implementation of the project in the state. We will also discuss and agree on a common set of ‘Results Indicators’ and a baseline survey will be planned to collect baseline data for Monitoring and Evaluation of the SC project at regular intervals for the duration of the project”.
Addressing the gathering Minister Roshan Baig said, ” It is indeed a matter of joy for Karnataka that seven cities including Mangaluru have been selected by Govt of India as smart cities. Now it’s the duty of the concerned city officials to see that they work hard for a successful smart city in their respective area. The Union Govt and Karnataka State Govt will sanction Rs 1000 crore in five years for the project. In Mangaluru Smart City project the infrastructure will be developed on 1628 acres according to area-based solutions and other development works under the ICT model under the Smart City project. I suggest that in future when the leaders travel abroad to learn about the infrastructure of the cities there, they should also take with them the members and concerned officials of the Corporation so that they also learn and use that knowledge in building a better Smart City in their respective City”.
Also speaking during the occasion, MLA JR Lobo said, ” Just being selected as a Smart City is of no use, we need to have some experienced and knowledgeable officials to carry on the work and make Smart City a better one. For that matter, a workshop like these will be highly influential in training the city officials in the right path to building a better and stronger smart city. We also need the support of smart people in the area to chalk out some plans to make a better Smart city because without citizens contribution no smart city will materialize in a better an proper way. I wish this workshop all success and hope that the delegates will learn to create a smart city with smart infrastructure”.
MLA Moideen Bava and DC Dr Jagadeesha also spoke and looked forward to seeing a Smart City with better infrastructure and development learned from this 2-day workshop. During the workshop, the team from South Korea will discuss and deliver talks on – ‘Smart Solid Waste Management’; ‘Smart Water System’; ‘Smart Transport Solutions’; ‘Smart Energy Management’; while the experts from World Bank will talk about, ‘ ICT Infrastructure, Digital Shared Services Platform; and Common Road Map for SC ICT solutions implementation by individual cities.