Thiruvananthapuram: Smart City special purpose vehicle holds first meet

Thiruvananthapuram: The first board meeting of the smart city special purpose vehicle will be held on August 10, according to Mayor V.K. Prasanth. He said that efforts were being made to avoid delays. While the state government whets the draft of SPV Article of Association (AoA) and Memorandum of Association (MoA), certain parts will be highlighted. This was decided at a meeting in which smart city SPV CEO K. Gopalakrishnan, its secretary C.S. Rajitha and the mayor took part.

“The AoA and MoA are similar to the Kochi draft except for some modifications. The modified portions will be highlighted so that the government need not go through the entire draft,” the mayor said. The process of inviting consultants will also start, he said. The state-level high-powered steering committee (SHPSC) had entrusted the State Mission Management Unit (SMMU) with the responsibility of inviting the Request for Proposals (RfP) from various consultants. By July 29, the draft of the RfP has to be submitted. The draft differs from Kochi’s AoA and MoA in the company structure – like the number of board of directors and the shareholders.

The Thiruvananthapuram’s smart city team wants to have an advisory forum consisting of the same set of experts who were part of the technical committee during the ‘smart cities challenge’. The name of the SPV will also be finalised in a day or two from the options ‘Smart Trivandrum,’ ‘Smart Thiruvananthapuram’ and ‘Smart City Thiruvananthapuram,’ according to the mayor. Some of the pan city projects, which include the drinking water fountain and smart bus stop projects, will be implemented first, he said.