Mangaluru : Member of Legislative Council, Ivan D’Souza has urged MP Nalin Kumar Kateel to impress upon the centre and ensure that Mangalore finds place in the list of 20 cities for the Smart City scheme of the Union government.

Briefing mediapersons here on Saturday, he said, he will organise a one-day seminar on Smart City project to mobilise suggestions from people from all walks of life, either on October 16 or 17 in Mangaluru. A suggestion box has also been kept outside the MLC’s office, wherein the public can submit their suggestions on Smart City.

“I have also decided to frame questionnaires by including 24 points of Smart City guidelines and distribute it among the public in all the 60 wards. The consolidated report collected from the public will be submitted to the MCC Commissioner and Mayor. The questionnaire will have 30 questions,” he added.

A ‘Smart City Proposal (SCP)’ has to be prepared and submitted for ‘Smart City Challenge’, which is a competitive process for making a formal pitch. The proposal will deal with various aspects like existing city profiles, etc. Stating that no Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been prepared for converting Mangalore Railway Station into world class station, he said that the MP should become pro-active and impress upon the railways to prepare a DPR for the same.

He added that, “When I had asked for the status of the world class station in the session, Minister for Infrastructure Roshan Baig had said that Ms Kito had conducted a study on upgrading the Mangalore Central Railway Station. The report has been submitted to the Railway Board and it does not come under the purview of the State government.”

Work on sports complex
He said that the Minister for Youth Empowerment and Sports Affairs, should initiate measures to take up the work on multi-sports complex on 1.16 acre at Urwa to promote sports and develop an international cricket stadium at Marakada Bondel.

The multi-sports complex and international cricket stadium will give an additional point to the Smart city proposal.