PANAJI
In a major boost to the capital city, Panaji has finally managed to qualify for funding under the Smart City Mission, an ambitious scheme of the Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD).
Panaji has managed to secure the 8th place in the list of 13 cities in the fast track mode, which was announced on Tuesday by the Union Minister for MoUD Venkaiah Naidu. In all, 23 cities across the country had competed in the fast track round.
Panaji, which had missed the first list of first 20 smart cities, improved the quality of its smart city plan by 9 per cent to qualify in the round.
Addressing a press conference, Panaji MLA Sidharth Kuncalienkar said, “Panaji competed once again in the fast track mode. They have not selected us. We have bid for this fast track mode and the bid has been improved compared to the original one. It has got selected in the list of 13 among the 23 cities that were nominated for the fast track mode.”
For the purpose of execution, a Special Purpose Vehicle will have to be formed after which the flow of funds under the scheme will begin.
“As per the smart city guidelines, we have to form a SPV, the work on which has already started. It will consist of representatives from the government and the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP). Once this is done, the Centre will release its first instalment of Rs 100 crore. Additionally, the State government has already made a budget provision for this year and Rs 80 crore has been sanctioned for this year,” informed Kuncalienkar.
Elaborating further about the smart city proposal (SCP), Kuncalienkar said, “There were two components to the proposal “ pan-city initiative and area-specific initiatives. We have taken up various projects under this scheme, and the council after evaluation has approved it as well. Some of the pan-city projects are hop-on hop-off buses, pedestrianisation of roads and public areas, improvement of pavements, etc.”
He, however, informed that on the solid waste management component, there is currently a mismatch between the collection and disposal which has to be properly synchronised.
Under area-specific initiatives, an area of two kilometres has been taken up which includes Sao Tome, Bhatlem and Altinho for improvement of services like sanitation and water supply, among others.
“We have not made major changes to the proposal. The costing and presentation has been reworked. And as regards the charges for PPP projects is concerned, it will only be for the transportation. No additional burden will be put on the citizens and it will be worked out as per the present charges,” he said.
As far as Panaji’s SCP is concerned, the SCP component is Rs 534.12 crore, convergence is Rs 778.55 crore and PPP is Rs 396.83 crore.
(Also see pg 10)
****BACK IN THE RECKONING
- After missing out in the first list of first 20 smart cities, Panaji improved the quality of its smart city plan by 9% to qualify in the round
- Panaji secured 8th place in the list of 13 cities in the fast track mode, in which 23 cities across the country had competed
- As per guidelines, a special purpose vehicle has to be formed that will consist of government and CCP representatives, after which the Centre will release its first instalment of Rs 100 crore
