The Hindu 21.09.2016
Corporation gets off the block for Smart City race
Ward panels to meet from October 1 to 10 to elicit recommendations
Setting in motion its efforts to transform the State capital into a Smart City, the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has initiated intensive discussions for the preparation of a proposal to be submitted to the Ministry of Urban Development.
A workshop which was held at the Corporation headquarters on Tuesday decided on a framework of activities to be undertaken as part of the ongoing Smart Cities Mission competition in which Thiruvananthapuram currently competed against 74 cities in the country. A total of 33 cities have already been selected for funding under the scheme.
According to Thiruvananthapuram Mayor V.K. Prasanth, ward committees will meet from October 1 to 10 to elicit recommendations to be considered for inclusion in the Smart City Proposal (SCP). It is likely that one of the 100 wards would be identified as a model for the implementation of the guidelines, which will later be replicated in the other parts of the corporation limits.
He added that a consulting firm will soon be roped in for the project from among as many as six entities which have expressed interest.
Unite, councillors told
Addressing the participants of the workshop, former State Planning Board member G. Vijayaraghavan appealed to the councillors to work for the larger interests of the city as the Smart City project would not provide for projects planned in each ward in the corporation. He held the view that the ward committees must take into account civic issues that are likely to crop up at least within the next five years and suggest solutions to address them.
Former Chief Town Planner A. Kasturi Rangan said that ‘smart’ solutions to various problems referred to measures that were technology-oriented and also derived from among the best practices in the world.
Later, a presentation was conducted by Riby Rachel Mathew, Urban Planner, State Mission Management Unit, on the guidelines of the Smart Cities Mission.
She also explained the steps that were undertaken for the preparation of the SCP in Kochi and the formation of a special purpose vehicle, the Cochin Smart Mission Ltd, for implementing the project. Members of the corporation technical committee including scientist Ajaya Kumar Varma of the Centre for Earth Science Studies, former director of NATPAC T. Elangovan and historian Malayinkeezhu Gopalakrishnan were among those who participated in the discussion.
