Mangaluru (The Hindu): Mohammed Nazir took charge as the new Commissioner of Mangaluru City Corporation here on Wednesday.

He was earlier Commissioner of Mangaluru Urban Development Authority.

The government has transferred H.N. Gopalakrishna, who was the corporation Commissioner, as Private Secretary to the Urban Development Minister.

Mr. Nazir, who holds a bachelor degree in civil engineering, had served as the Chief Planning Officer of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat and Executive Officer of Bantwal Taluk Panchayat earlier.

Mr. Nazir told The Hindu that as corporation Commissioner, his priorities would focus on plugging loopholes in resource mobilisation. The corporation should get revenue from various sources. Property tax collection should be augmented. He said that Mangaluru is likely to get selected in the second list of smart city project of the Union government. Once it got selected, funds to be granted should be made use of properly for the integrated development of the city.

The Commissioner said that he would focus on the implementing the proposal to build a state-of-the-art bus stand at Pumpwell. He said that it was a long-pending project which required push at various levels to make it a reality.