A two-day workshop on ‘Smart cities mission- Karnataka’, a planning and initiation meet for information and communication technology (ICT) solutions, has been organised on February 3 and 4 at Hotel Ocean Pearl in the city. This could prove a first step towards making Mangaluru a smart city. It will be inaugurated by Urban Development Minister R Roshan Baig at 9.30 am. As many as 150 people including seven World Bank experts, besides state-level officers, commissioners of respective corporations, 60 corporators from the MCC are expected to attend the workshop.

Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer said on Thursday, “The workshop aimed at preparing common plans for the six cities selected to be developed under the very project – Mangaluru, Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad, Davangere, Shivamogga and Tumakuru.” According to the handout of the MCC, the morning session on the inaugural day is restricted to presentations from various corporations, while the post noon sessions will have foreign experts’ presentations on ‘Smart Transport Solutions’, ‘Smart Power/ Street Light Management’, ‘Smart Energy Management’, ‘Smart Solid Waste Management, Smart Water System and ICT Infrastructure’.

The second and the final day will have discussions among representatives of the cities facilitated by the World Bank. Speaking on preparations for the implementation of the project, Nazeer said the mandatory special purpose vehicle (SPV) named Mangaluru Smart City Corporation has been registered, while tenders have been invited for project management consultant (PMC). The PMC will be tasked with preparing a detailed project report (DPR) that may take one year to take shape. In the MCC limits alone, 1,625 acres have been identified for area-based development (ABD) under the project. The officer said, as per procedure, both the Centre and state will release Rs 100 crore each annually for five years totalling Rs 1,000 crore towards phase-wise implementation of the project.