TORONTO - Alphabet Inc's urban innovation company Sidewalk Labs hopes to break ground on its first ever smart-city project in Toronto in 2020, and begin testing some of the proposed technologies this summer, its chief executive told Reuters.

This is the first time a timeline has been publicly disclosed for the project designed to increase land efficiency, cut costs and conserve energy in one of the world's priciest housing markets as development struggles to catch up with a rapidly growing population.

Government-backed agency Waterfront Toronto in March 2017 requested proposals to develop a 12-acre (4.86 hectares) environmentally friendly mixed-use area that would add jobs and be affordable for all ages and income brackets. That was the first part of the planned revitalization of about 800 acres of industrial wasteland to the east of the city's downtown on Lake Ontario.

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