The Greater Cochin Development Authority will organise a two-day seminar where experts will recommend ways to go about its development vision for the city for the next 20 years.
Speaker G. Karthikeyan will inaugurate the Vision 2030 seminar at Hotel Gateway on August 16 at 9.30 a.m. Minister for Local Self-government Manjalamkuzhi Ali will preside. Finance Minister K.M. Mani will deliver the keynote address.
Excise Minister K. Babu, Mayor Tony Chammany, P. Rajeev, MP, MLAs Benny Behanan, V.D. Satheeshan, S. Sarma, Hibi Eden, Dominic Presentation, Anwar Sadath, Jose Thettayil, and V.P. Sajeendran, and former Union Minister S. Krishnakumar will be among those to speak at the inaugural session.
Union Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies K.V. Thomas will address the seminar on August 17 at 9.15 a.m.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will inaugurate the valedictory function at 3.30 p.m. Minister for Public Works V.K. Ibrahim Kunju will preside. Minister for Civil Supplies Anoop Jacob, MPs P.C. Chacko and K.P. Dhanapalan, MLAs Jose Thettayil, T.M. Thomas Isaac, Saju Paul, and V.P. Sajeendran will be present.
Excise Minister K. Babu will release the logo of Vision 2030 while Mr. Ali will launch the website in the GCDA conference hall on August 3 at 10.30 a.m.
At a press conference here on Monday, GCDA chairman N. Venugopal said that the seminar is being organised to discuss the bottlenecks in the development of the city.
The seminar will witness presentation of 12 technical papers touching up on various aspects of the city’s development.
On the first day five papers will be presented. R.K. Singh, former LSGD Secretary, will present a paper on the need for the formation of a Metropolitan Regional Development Authority in Kochi, followed by a paper on integrated traffic and transport planning for Kochi by N.S. Sreenivasan, transport planning consultant from Chennai. C. Raju, retired chief engineer of Konkan Railways, will speak on introduction of suburban rail transport system in the city while former tourism secretary Venu will present a paper on the role of tourism industry in the economic development of the city. T.K. Jose, chairman, Coconut Development Board, will speak on ways to resolve sanitation, solid waste management, and drainage problems while Susan Jacob, technical member of KWA, will present a paper on problems and prospects of drinking water and urban development.
Seven papers will be presented on the second day of the seminar. T.M. Vinodkumar, retired professor, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, will present a seminar paper on new approaches and practices in land use planning that facilitates urban development.
C.V. Ananda Bose, former chairman, UN Expert Committee, New Delhi, will speak on housing problems and prospects in the city.
T. Balakrishnan, former principal secretary, will present a paper on the role of manufacturing industries in IT and ITES.
Nandakumar, formerly with the National Disaster Management Authority, will present a paper on disaster management plan and its significance in the emerging metropolitan city of Kochi. Jaigopal Rao, a Kochi-based architect, will present a paper on environmentally efficient and sustainable urban development practices.
Cochin Port Trust Chairman Paul Antony will speak on the role of port and its allied activities in shaping the future of Kochi Metropolitan City. M. Ramachandran, former secretary, Urban Development, will present a paper on funding options for urban infrastructure projects in Kochi.
