Mangaluru: ‘MAKARIOS’ the Management club of the Post Graduate Department of Business Administration, St Aloysius Institute Of Management and Information Technology, (AIMIT) Beeri St Aloysius College, Mangalore organized it’s biennial symposium Pragathi-2016: A way to learn and way to grow, on September 28.

The theme for the symposium ‘Mangaluru as a smart city: Challenges & Strategies’ highlighting on infrastructural challenges, traffic management and solid waste management is especially relevant in the present context.

The programme was inaugurated by the chief guest Dharmaraj, the CEO of Mohtisham Builders and Member, Mangaluru Smart city project along with the director of AIMIT, Fr Denzil Lobo SJ; dean of MBA dept, Dr Roweena Wright; Faculty coordinator of Pragathi, Dhananjaya; Management Club Secretary of AIMIT Retrekar Abhishek and student coordinators of Pragati 2016, Jyothi Pinto and Naizelle.

Director Fr Denzil Lobo SJ shared a few glimpses of the Smart City vision, highlighting on the massive changes that took place and the opportunities provided by computer technology and its applications.

Chief guest Dharmaraj spoke about the chaotic life of the people in the cities. He gave a detailed overview of the smart city vision and mission. Describing the challenges faced in Brownfield and Greenfield city development, Dharmaraj also defined Retrofit Areas, Re-development areas and Greenfield areas. He emphasised that with Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities like Mangalore the challenge was generating funds.

He demarcated pan city development which means core infrastructure development from area based development which is micro level planning and implementation. He also mentioned that the total funds required for this project were enormous and in order to attract the investors a SWOT analysis was conducted. Dharmaraj maintained that there are a lot of strengths and opportunity for this project and that the weakness and threats are very minimal.

Dharmaraj emphasised that the creation of knowledge cities, wellness cities and sports cities will enable Mangalore to be a smart city to be reckoned with even by international standards.

The session concluded with a lively and interactive question and answer session.