‘Sense of ownership among people key to city’s growth’

COIMBATORE: Sense of ownership is important for the city's development, said German ambassador to India Martin Ney during a discussion on Smart City here on Monday. He said the development of lakes was the key to the city's transformation as a Smart City.

"There are eight lakes in the city. We feel that developing them will give a lot of positivity to the people of the city," Ney said, adding, "I live in Berlin and there is a lake close to my house. When I go for jogging, I take the lake route. And during summers, I swim in the lake. It's only because the lake is clean."

Germany, he said, would help the city corporation draw plans to clean the water and the drainage that enters the lake. "If the lake and its surroundings are clean, city residents will surely flock to it. At the same time, there should be a sense of ownership among the people," the German ambassador said.

City corporation commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan said efforts were on to make people part of the city's overall growth. "In an attempt to inculcate the sense of ownership among the people, we are inviting ideas from the public for our projects. When we incorporate their ideas into development plans, they will feel a sense of ownership towards it," he said.

Anandi Iyer, head of Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, India, said, they were looking at conducting a workshop on mobility in January 2018. "We will then look at the possibilities of helping the city corporation in its initiatives to improve mobility in the city."

During the discussion, one of the industrial representatives from the city said the civic body and Fraunhofer Foundation should look at identifying citizen centric metrics for implementing development projects. "Take for example the time taken by a factory labourer to reach his work place from home. This will help in designing the public transport system," the industrialist said.