Model Mini City on the Anvil in Trivandrum

Introduction

The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the center had proposed the setting up of Smart Cities across the country in the last year (2015). As per the plan, the Prime Minister Modi had asked the Ministry of Urban Welfare to find different cities across the country that could be developed as the Smart Cities. Accordingly, the ministry had prepared a first list of cities, and it asked the civic agencies in these cities to compile the requirements for the submission to the center. Our capital city Thiruvananthapuram comes in the second list of cities that have been identified for the Smart City development. After getting the Ministry of Urban Welfare's intimation, the Trivandrum Corporation has started compiling the requirements with the help of the citizens’ support. One of the packages identified for the project is the Mini City development in the state capital within a small area. In this blog post, we will see what the concept of Mini City in the Smart City concept and how the civic body of the city is planning to make it happen.

Mini City Concept

One of the requirements put forward by the center is the development of a Mini City within the Smart City region wherein the civic body in charge has to set up a small city as a model with all the modern amenities. As per the norms laid, the civic body has to set up the Mini City through re-development. The officials from the Ministry of Urban Welfare would visit this Mini City to find out the scale of development in the selected region. Once the civic body gets the go ahead permission, it can think of developing other regions in the city based on this development model.  For this purpose, the Trivandrum Corporation has to find a consultant. There is a process underway to identify the expert in town planning from a list of eight selected consultants. The officials of the civic body are going to meet on November 29, 2016 to select the expert town planner.

Mini City Development

The civic bodies of various cities across the country have to offer most modern facilities to the people to raise their standards of life. Hence, the civic bodies would start searching for the place where they can easily set up his model Mini City immediately after getting the Smart City status. The civic body has to find at least 50 acres of land for this purpose. The state experts in town planning opine that the vacant land found next to the Akkulam Boat Club is ideal for this purpose. In the past, State Housing Board earmarked the above mentioned land for Satellite City development. Somehow, it did not materialize at that time. This place was even considered for the setting up of the National Games Village in the run up to the 2015 National Games. The total cost for the development of Model Mini City is Rs. 1000 crore. Being a huge expenditure, the central government, the civic body and the state government need to find out the ways to mobilize the money for this purpose.