PANAJI
More than five years after its purported execution was launched, the Panaji Smart City projects are badly laggard a Union government’s reply to a query in the Rajya Sabha has revealed.
Projects worth a minuscule Rs 16.15 crore of the total Rs 386.14 crore worth of works have been executed and completed, the written reply tabled in the Rajya Sabha by the Central government said.
The Rajya Sabha was also told that a whopping Rs 329.08 crore worth of projects allotted to Panaji Smart City are in the “work order” stage and another two projects collectively worth Rs 40.01 crore were stuck in the bureaucratic red-tape at the tendering stage.
Among the nearly 100 cities picked to develop “smart cities” back in 2016, Panaji is among the few where the State government decided the execution will not be carried out through the local body -- Corporation of the City of Panaji -- but via a special purpose vehicle which was christened Imagine Panaji Smart City Limited (IPSCL), a decision seemingly prompted by the fact that CCP was politically controlled by the ruling BJP’s opponent.
In fact, the CCP and the IPSCL had been at loggerheads until October last year, when the BJP-led State government exhibited a change of heart and accommodated the CCP Mayor on the IPSCL board. The move came a year after Panaji MLA, Atanasio Monserrate, defected to the ruling side.
Monserrate too found a place on the IPSCL Board in place of his predecessor Siddharth Kuncolienkar. The Board is headed by the State’s Chief Secretary.
The Modi government’s Smart Cities Mission (SCM) was a proposal announced in the NDA’s first budget.
