PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said that his government has initiated a GIS-based detailed survey of Goa's cities and towns to plug revenue leakages through the municipalities.
"The GIS-based survey of urban local bodies (ULB) will help plug revenue leakages. It will help the administration of these Urban Lovcal Bodies to assess taxes efficiently and also keep a track of unauthorised structures,” Sawant said.
The Chief Minister was addressing a conference of Chief Executive Officers of smart cities from across the country which began in the capital on Monday.
The conference on data and technology usage is being organised by the Union ministry of Housing and Urban affairs.
Sawant also said his government has initiated the process of drawing up master plans for all the 13 municipalities in the State.
"Over 60 per-cent of Goa's population resides in cities and urban areas according to the last Census," Sawant said in a bid to explain the reason behind drawing up 'master plans' of the State's cities and towns.
He added that the urban population nationally is less than half that of Goa.
Meanwhile referring to the progress of work on the Panaji Smart City project, Sawant claimed that sixty per-cent of the work related to the flood mitigation plan, including the pumping Station at Mala and rejuvenation of St Inez creek has been completed.
"Smart cities need smart people," Sawant said, arguing that they can point out shortcomings and aid in bringing about improvements.
Meanwhile North Goa Collector Mamu Hage, IAS, who also attended the conference in her capacity as CEO of Imagine Panaji Smart City Corporation Limited (IPSCL) claimed that 45 to 47 projects have been envisaged in Panaji under the 'smart city' plan and about 15 of these are completed.
Work on around 30-odd projects is ongoing, she said.
Hage claimed that the recently commissioned Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) is aiding the authorities apprehend those involved in crimes.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) based integrated high-tech system, comprises of CCTV cameras for real-time surveillance of traffic junctions and other important city buildings and locations, for smart traffic management, crowd management and brings all government departments onto a single platform.
The aggregated data is analysed and processed at the control centres for actionable intelligence to aid decision making.
