FRAT members to meet Shah over Smart City demand for T'puram

: Representatives of various residents associations here propose to call on BJP President Amit Shah to press the Centre to reconsider the exclusion of the Kerala capital from the list of its proposed Smart Cities programme.
Representatives of Federation of Residents' Association Thiruvananthapuram (FRAT), an umbrella organisation of residents associations here, would meet Shah and submit a memorandum requesting to include the state capital in the list on September 26 during his brief visit to the state.
"With the multi-crore Vizhinjam Seaport project becoming a reality here, it is necessary to settle a number of issues in the city ranging from adequate availability of drinking water and electricity supply to rail-road development and sewage problems," FRAT general secretary M S Venugopal said.

The centre's Smart City project gave fresh hopes to Thiruvananthapuram which faced negligence from both the union and state governments and its exclusion from the programme would hit the development dreams of the city, he said here in a release.
"If the state capital is excluded from the Smart City programme, it will affect the development of both the Vizhinjam project and the future of the city," he said.
He said the representatives would also inform Amith Shah about the significance of developing a shipyard at Poovar near here.