MANGALURU: Mangaluru City Corporation on Wednesday exhorted Mangaluru Smart City Ltd (MSCL) to route any new smart city mission projects through its council. MSCL is the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up as directed by the ministry of housing and urban affairs to implement the projects. Such a move will give real time updates to the corporators on projects that the SPV intends to take up under the smart city project of the ministry.
Mooting this idea at the monthly meeting of the council, Premanand Shetty, chief whip of the ruling BJP. urged Akshy Sridhar, commissioner, MCC, who is also holding concurrent charge as MD, MSCL to keep the council in the loop. This will give the council a better idea about what the SPV is doing in terms of various smart city project ideas and the new projects that it intends to initiate under the terms of the project.
The issue came to the fore when Congress corporator Abdul Latif objected to diversion of funds set aside for development of slums under the smart cities project from Kandak in his ward to Jyothinagar. Latif wondered if there was provision under the mission for such diversion of funds. Sridhar said the SPV could do so only after it obtained prior permission from the board of MSCL after justifying reasons for such a proposal.
Premanand also acceded to a contention from AC Vinayaraj, Congress corporator that the SPV should first fulfil the basic set of projects it had proposed on formation, that is, river front development. With former deputy commissioner and Dakshina Kannada district secretary V Ponnuraj, now the chairman of MSCL and Sridhar, the MD, there should be greater synergy in visualising and execution of smart city projects in consultation with stakeholders, he noted.
After the meeting, Premanand told TOI there have been instances in the past when ministers and other stakeholders have pushed their own projects that have not been mooted by the city level advisory forum (CLAF). “Instead, it will be worthwhile if the CLAF first deliberate on the projects, moots it to the council which can then approve the same after discussion,” he said. Sridhar earlier at the meeting accepted Premanand’s suggestion in this regard.