At a time when Chennai is competing to be in the first list of 20 smart cities in the country, corporation commissioner Vikram Kapur has said the civic body lacks expertise on advanced technology and ideas.

"Our civic bodies, including Chennai Corporation, do not have a single urban planner. In cities like London, chief urban planner is the second most important official after the mayor. That is the importance given to planning," he said on Tuesday during a stakeholders meeting for the smart city project at Ripon Buildings.

"If a city has to really become world class , the first thing is to get experts from various disciplines, including urban planners, architects, transportation planners, financial managers and environmental engineers," he said.

Kapur said building such resources remained a challenge. "We need to relook at the entire organization chart to get right people with right skills".