Ministry to tutor cities on bettering the Smart City Plan at a workshop
Workshop on smart cities next month
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Regarding Mangaluru city’s plan, Mr. Ponnuraj said that it lacked vision on immediate deliverables and one that could bring immediate relief to the issues that people in the city faced.
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I wonder whether already selected 20 cities have long term vision & deliverables also or have only short term vision & deliverables as their smart city project cost is less. If Mangalore will have both short & long term visions then it is great. Also wonder what type of Business Model the selected cities have opted.
‘Infrastructure needs a push’
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Participants and panellists at a discussion on urban infrastructure planning and development in Mangaluru on Saturday offered suggestions, including widening of roads, making Mangaluru an IT hub, exploiting solar energy, adopting rainwater harvesting etc., to improve the quality of life in the coastal town.
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Executive Engineer, Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board, said that with the city growing, the storage had become insufficient. ... . The new dam being built should be able to solve the problem, he said.
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Rain harvesting is a good suggestion. Lakes' restoration and recharging of ground water in suburbs is also a must. If rain is unpredictable like this Mangalore may soon need a desalination plant. (
Industries in DK mull setting up desalination plant to tide over water crisis). Current problem of water shortage seems to be due to
MRPL & MSEZ drawing Netravati river water during non-rainy season October-May.(
The Hindu). It is sad that region is lacking water storage infrastructure (a weakness)(both natural & man-made) though placed in highest rain receiving zone (a strength) of the state which is enough to cater the needs of multiple times the current population. (
The chief minister promises on Paschima Vahini Scheme which envisages harnessing the west-flowing rivers.). To avoid the threat of waterscarcity & draught Mangalore needs a smart plan for solving water shortage issues. Hope this threat is identified in SWOT analysis of Smart City Proposal and mitigation measures are also suggested. Even smart ground water level monitoring is one of neccessities along with ground recharging.
Harvest rainwater to face scarcity: expert
'Neglecting traditional water harvesting techniques adversely affect sources'
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Dr Shenoy said that the elected representatives, officials and public should raise awareness on rain water harvesting techniques. India receives second highest rainfall in the world.
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Good thing is many of newspapers mainly in local languages are creating awareness on rainwater harvesting by publishing daily a case of rainwater harvesting where the harvester is benefitted. What is needed is a simple Smart Plan for Water Management. A few of steps I suggest are below.
1. Prepare a pamphlet or brochure detailing advantage and need for
rainwater harvesting. Not sure whether Karnataka has released RWH guidelines mentioned
here. In pamphlet, first of all, issue of ground water depletion has to be explained neatly and then measures to increase ground water level should be discussed along with
other techniques of rainwater harvesting. In case of recharging ground water, awareness has to be created on direct and indirect techniques of filling wells including soak pits. More importantly awareness should be created against
pit latrines which may contaminate ground water and on need for drainage connection. (
Pilikula urban eco-park work to be launched today.
A good way to create awareness.)
2. A team has to be formed for creating awareness on waterharvesting. Currently MCC has formed a team to identify wells in MCC area and cleaning the unused wells. The same team could be strenghened with volunteers.
3. Public well should harvest roof water of surrounding houses. For this pipes have to be put up from homes to well. Similarly private wells can use not only well owners roof water but also nearby neighbours roof water who does not have well. Water which is underground can not evaporate easily.
4. Just a couple of years back there was no solar panel traders in Mangalore. Now so many firms have comeup. Similarly Mangalore needs firms offering waterharvesting consultancies and equipments. I don't know which are the state and
central government
schemes (
rainwater harvesting micro-financing) which can help here though
Karnataka & a few other states have made harvesting compulsory for buildings and provide some rebate on tax payment to individuals.
Meanwhile, the district administration has issued an order asking the residential units, industries and other commercial complexes having more than 2000 sq ft of area to implement rainwater harvesting mechanisms, and to recharge water table for borewells with suitable mechanisms.
5. A local team to watch against dumping of waste in well, regular cleaning of well for things like fallen leaves, maintenance measures against evaporation and annual maintenance of stuff like soak pit. CCTV camera can be used to monitor against dumping of waste.
6. A software application which can tell us everything is going on perfectly by collecting manual & automatic field data on maintenance, monitoring and water level & quality. Even river water supply to industries should be monitored, controlled & limited againt same parameters.
Hope that MCC has computerized database of buildings with more than 2000 sq ft for which rainwater harvesting is going to be compulsory.
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Before a rainwater harvesting system is built, it's helpful to use digital tools. For instance, if you want to detect if a region has a high rainwater harvesting potential, rainwater harvesting GIS maps can be made using an online interactive tool. Or if you need to estimate how much water is needed to fulfill a community's water needs, the Rain is Gain tool helps with this. Tools like these can save time and money before a commitment to build a system is undertaken, in addition to making the project sustainable and last a long time.
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Above paragraph is from
wikipedia. Estimating how much water is needed depends upon predictability of rain. Safe one is to assume rain starts late June and proportinate it to annual lowest rain received by river catchment areas & population and industries.
‘Rainwater harvesting should be compulsory’
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In a meeting with representatives of citizens’ associations and non-government organisations on Thursday, Mr. Ibrahim said that the civic body should promote rainwater harvesting to mitigate water scarcity. The proposal should be placed in the MCC council and made compulsory, he said. Mr. Ibrahim said that the corporation should also take up work of recharging ground water including allowing roadside drains to percolate water.
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So far the government has failed to fill lakes with clean storm water. Will they percolate from roadside drains? Clean water or gutter water?
40,000 water samples found not fit for drinking.
Water in many city wells not potable due to sewage water seepage contamination.
Political parties will not go for making anything compulsory as they will loose votes. Helmet is made compulsory by court not the government. But by making water harvesting compulsory for big properties rainwater flowing on road will be drastically reduced and also problem of water falling on head of pedestrians on footpaths will be solved by making waterharvesting compulsory for commercial buildings. Keeping targets like all government & aided schools will have rooftop solar panels & rainwater harvesting in next two years can be useful. Good news is an NGO has already prepared a plan of rainwater harvesting of wells aided by self-help groups.
And finally
City chalks out fresh strategies to ensure there is no repeat of water crisis
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This includes storing water up to five-metres at the new under construction vented dam, utilizing water generated from STPs to fullest possible extent, ensuring continued water supply from Lakya Dam of KIOCL Ltd beyond May 31.
Other steps mooted is scientific recharging of all existing bore wells and cap on sinking more bore wells in future, rejuvenation of existing lakes - major and minor dotting the city. The other major step mulled is compulsory implementation of rule in zoning regulation that mandates buildings to undertake rain water harvesting and it's monitoring by town planning section of MANGALURU City Corporation before issuing the completion certificate to parties concerned.
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Zilla panchayat to make rain water harvesting mandatory
Is there one more rule to be followed?:- Prohibition of buildings construction near lakes
Here is suggestion for Cycle Hiring & Tracks.
And there are some good things happening towards improving Mangalore and surrounding area as a knowledge hub with stress on R&D. Specifically there are a few new intiatives to strengthen healthcare domain knowledgebase.
CENT of SCEM receives prestigious DST funding for project
Mangalore University plans to start MSc course in medical physics: entered into a MoU with Mangalore Institute of Oncology
K.S. Hegde Hospital gets neurosciences research centre
Science research centre may get Rs. 50 crore
One proud thing for the region is
MCOPS is top ranked pharma college in India
State of art research facilities of global standard at Manipal University (
Source)
· Manipal University Technology Business Incubator (MUTBI)
· Innovation Centre, MIT
· Manipal Assisted Reproductive Centre (MARC)
· Department of Atomic and Molecular Physic (DAMP)
· School of Regenerative Medicine (SRM)
· Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences (MCNS)
· Manipal Centre for Clinical Research (MCCR)
· School of Life Sciences (SLS)
· Department of Virus Research (DVR)
India building 160-strong lab network to tackle bio-terrorism including one established in Manipal
Now, faculty of Manipal University get bitten by startup bug
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Manipal University Technology Business Incubator (MUTBI) has been constantly progressing with the startup companies in alignment with the Government of India initiative of 'Make in India', the recent addition of companies in MUTBI in healthcare domain has been supported by direct grants from various government ministries. These companies are developing healthcare solutions to low and middle income group population. .... Currently PetaVista Healthcare & IT Solutions Pvt Ltd and Visint Health Care Pvt Ltd. Petavista was incorporated this year and its Directors include faculties from various streams from health science to engineering. ... "Our start-up is developing a low cost solution to prevent foot ulceration and amputation by predicting it in advance with a remedial solution for middle and low income population," said Arun Maiya, Professor, Department of Physiotherapy, SOAHS. .... " VISINT coined from Vision and Intelligence, which effectively states our Vision of developing Intelligent Vision care solutions for efficient public health delivery to meet eye care needs in India and scalable globally. Our Mission is to develop cost-effective and indigenous technology solutions to enhance doctor-patient relationship," said Krithica and Dr Ramesh S Ve, directors of the start-up.
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But Mangaluru needs an aggressive man like
this one if it wants to promote Health Tourism. Best way is to Mangaluru Mayor take up this responsibility on his shoulder and interact with probable investors directly. As I mentioned earlier Mayor has to keep direct contact with NRIs in Gulf to get UAE smart city through their influence.
Just imagine Mayor talking to UK embassy and getting these things to Mangaluru:- Indo-UK Institutes of Health(2) & HyperCat Incubator.
Health Task Force formed for disaster management in Dakshina Kannada district
UAE’s Thumbay group to invest in a multi-specialty hospital in Mangalore (to make a hub for medical tourism and training for medical students?)
In the mean time Mangalore seems to have
lost pharmaceutical park after losing CIPET.
400 railway stations across India to become ‘smart stations’, new icons: Suresh Prabhu
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He said the government has taken steps to develop 100 cities as 'Smart Cities' in the country and since stations are the beginning of any city, they will also be developed as "smart stations".
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Whether 'Worldclass Station' and 'Smart Station' are one and the same? What this means is Mangaluru will have 'Smart Port' and 'Smart Railway Station'. And even 'Smart Airport'. When will Mangaluru have 'Smart Transportation Hub' for buses?
'The revised vision document and detailed project report for Smart Mangaluru has been sent to the Ministry of Urban Development'
But the latest news is
Smart City for Mangaluru: New proposal to focus more on fisheries
Smart city: corporation told to project old port
So now they want to take decisions without citizen's participation?.
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So this is what they are planning at Maravoor!? Though the type of projects the government has not specified I wish it to be a 'Shipping IT City' filled with Maritime Informatics, Ship & Port Engineering, Design & Technology companies so to give a IT/ITES boost to Mangaluru. Let us see whether Gurupur river is fortunate enough to have green field smart cities on both sides so near to airport and port.
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These are types of companies Mangaluru should be able to attract:- Singapore-based MariApps Marine Solutions Private Limited became the first company to launch operations in SmartCity Kochi (SCK)
Mangaluru is one among 7 of the greenest cities in India
Hope Mangaluru's Smart City Plan is good enough to maintain & improve on this. I am also hoping that smart city proposal stresses on increasing open space and greenery. We need to know now what is Environmental Performance Index (EPI) or Green Index now and what it will be after Smart City project implementation.
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