Smart City Mangaluru: No bright ideas flow at meet

MANGALURU: Bright ideas were sorely missing at the Smart City consultation with citizens at Kadri Park premises on Sunday. Although Mangaluru City South MLA JR Lobo clearly delineated that citizens should not bring up existing problems at the meet, but suggest how various options like tourism, education, human resources, medical facilities, financial capability, fisheries sector could be leveraged to bring in more investments, citizens went on to explain the existing problems and how that should be solved. Although Lobo laid out a clear-cut demarcation of sectors that had potential like industrial growth, as the region had all types of connectivity like air, road, rail and port, no suggestions were made in this regard. Vishwanath Kotekar, a former bank employee, said that the city had to be decongested by shifting the bus stand from Hampanakatta. Shelters with basic provisions should be provided for migrant labourers, apart from developing the old bus stand area. Another citizen Jagadeesh Chandra said that people should be willing to cooperate during road widening work and other such projects. Ramaiah Shetty, a retired government official, suggested to levy cess to take up the Smart City project. Lobo earlier explained that the Rs 1,000 crore which will come to a Smart City, in the five years, selected in the first 20 list, was just a seed money and not for spending on infrastructure. "With these funds, we should evolve concepts, which will fuel growth. It is the task of the people to see that the seed money is used to get investments to the city," he added. -TOI