The Ongole civic body was formed as early as 1876 but the township failed to grow as expected by the citizens for many reasons. However, people can now expect some solid growth in the years to come with the formation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV), Ongole Smart City Corporation Limited.
Ongole is among the six cities the State government has selected to turn them into smart ones by chalking out a 20-year action plan. Under the smart city mission, on the lines of the one brought out by the Union government, the State government would provide infrastructure to ensure faster development of the city.
Making a PowerPoint presentation, Mr. Bashir Shirazi of the Andhra Pradesh Urban Infrastructure Asset Management Limited exhorted the citizens to come out with suggestions to develop the “smart city” by exploiting the untapped growth potential and also preserving and branding the city's unique cultural identity.
Fund mobilisation
The civic corporation would get ₹33 crore each in the next three years under the project and had the potential to mobilise up to ₹1,000 crore for various development projects from the Centre and other sources, said Municipal Commissioner S. Venkatakrishna, one of the directors of the SPV headed by Collector Sujata Sharma.
Project reports
The civic body by preparing detailed project reports under various heads could get ample assistance from the Union and State governments and mop up additional funds from the market provided it improved revenue collection.
Water user charges
It could get additional revenue by imposing water user charges, felt Mr. Shirazi.
The SPV would come out with a vision document by March-end, they said and invited suggestions on the social media from citizens.
Messages could be sent on WhatsApp to +91 83175363707 or tweet to swatchongole or email to ongole.smarcity@gmail.com. Posts could also be made on the Facebook page of the Ongole Municipal Corporation, Mr.Venkatakrishna added.
