Mangalore: Mangalore City Corporation wants to add Moodshedde and Bala gram panchayat areas in the corporation limits to meet the criteria of the Central government’s Smart City Scheme, according to Mayor Mahabala Marla.

Addressing reporters on Wednesday, he said, “to meet the eligibility of Centre’s Smart City Scheme; the city should have a population between 5 to 10 lakhs. Presently, according to the census 2011, the population in the city is little over 4.99 lakh. Therefore, we will include Moodshedde and Bala gram panchayat, which has a population of 81,031”, he said.

Except the population figures, the city has meets all the other parameters,  such as transport, healthcare and solid waste management to be part of the Smart City scheme, he said adding that the city corporation is doing everything to push the proposal forward.

According to the smart city concept developed by the Union ministry of Urban Development, a smart city is the one that has good infrastructure – water, clean air, power supply and healthcare – which will attract investments. The Union government has planned to develop 100 smart cities in the country.

On the Greater Mangalore project proposal, Marla said getting Smart city scheme will be a stepping stone to go ahead with a Greater Mangalore project. “The Greater Mangalore project is amalgamating outskirt regions. It’s not feasible as of now. When we invest a lot on the development in the outskirts, it’s important that we get returns”, he said.

The mayor also said we are co-operating with the central government to upgrade to Mangalore Railway junction into a  world class facility under public private partnership.