the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Executive Officer of Imagine Panaji Smart City development Limited (IPSCDL) Swayamdipta Pal Choudhari on Sunday said, non availibilty of accurate data has become the biggest hindrance to conceptualisation of the Panaji Smart City project.
While delivering a key note address at an Engineers Day function organised by the Institute of Engineers Goa Chapter, Swayamdipta Choudhari also said that due to the monsoon and festive seasons like Ganesh Chaturthi, IFFI and Christmas practically less time is available to execute work.
He also mentioned about other practical problems in executing works. There are around 16 underground cables of different agencies in 3 meter width at Raibander which makes it practically impossible to dig road without causing any damage to the existing cables, he added to his grievance list.
“Smart City project started on existing (brownfield) environment and the city has its legacy issues”, he said. Pointing to the question being raised when Panaji has problem of basic facilities such as water logging, sewerage and drinking water, Choudhari justified the priorities given under Smart city project.
Installation of cameras for traffic management system, sensors for air quality management have been given priority under the smart city project as these will help in generating accurate data for future planning, he said.
He said that with the implementation of technology public transport system will improve. He also suggested that coordination between private-public transport systems while also suggesting waterways development.
He also mentioned that in the last two and half years the IPSCL found it difficult
to get good engineers on board. Sometimes good inputs have been received from people which consultants cannot provide, Chowdhari mentioned. “We are the only Smart City project which has not hired international consultant. Rather we took help of consultants for specific projects.”
He mentioned that the completed projects like River walk, Cycle track which have been completed under smart city project.We need to have a common underground cable ducting mechanism to avoid cable congestion in the city, he added.
He suggested that people should become smart to conceptualise smart city project.
Pravin Zantye said that the perfect planning should be done for next 25 years so that Goa never faces problem like electric failure.
He suggested that the roads should be made broader in every village considering that almost all Goa is not becoming a urbanise area.
TCP Minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar said that he will try to incorporate engineer’s association representative on official planning boards.
