Port city to be ’Smart City’, Temple Town to be ’Heritage City’

 

Bengaluru / Mangaluru, 20 Nov 2014: Coastal belt of Karnataka is being gifted with a major project of housing both as Smart City and Heritage City. Karnataka is keen to develop/upgrade existing towns and cities as ‘smart cities’ than create new green field cities, stated Karnataka Minister for Urban Development Vinay Kumar Sorake in a meeting held in Bangalore.

 

The state government is working on developing few cities and towns in the state under the ambitious ’Smart City’ scheme of the central government. A proposal has been sent to the Union Government in this regard and the benefit of the same will be reaped by several cities including Mangaluru and Udupi.

 

“We are for developing existing towns into smart cities by improving infrastructure and connectivity rather than building new cities,” said the Minister. Administrations of cities including Mangaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi, Kalaburgi, Ballari and Davangere had evinced interest for upgrading. In the backdrop of no guidelines or formula in place by the Government of India for setting up ‘smart cities’ in the country, Karnataka is of the opinion to develop existing towns and cities,” he said.

 

While, Mangaluru, Kalaburagi, and Hubballi-Dharwad, Mysuru, Belagavi, and Davangere are proposed to be developed as smart cities Under Smart City scheme, Ramanagara, Tumakuru, and Devanahalli are proposed to be developed as Satellite Towns. Udupi, Hosapete in Ballari district, and Vijayapura have been recommended for being groomed as Heritage Cities.

 

Minister Sorake said that eight cities having population of five to ten lac in the state are eligible for being considered under the above scheme.

 

“This is purely on the basis of saving resources and improving the life and living standards of existing cities. Creating new cities needs huge amounts of money to provide sanitation, power, water, transport in addition to environmental issues,” he added.