The capital city of Panjim has been chosen for the smart cities project initiative in Goa. However, attempts are being made to treat the entire state of Goa as one city for the smart cities mission for promoting mega housing & unsustainable infrastructure projects in villages.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has prepared guidelines for smart cities in India. According to these guidelines, the strategic components of area-based development in the Smart Cities Mission are city improvement (retrofitting), city renewal (redevelopment) and city extension (Greenfield development) plus a Pan-city initiative in which smart solutions are applied covering larger parts of the city. The smart cities guidelines further state that city extension (Greenfield development) will introduce most of the smart solutions in a previously vacant area (more than 250 acres) using innovative planning, plan financing and plan implementation tools (e.g. land pooling/ land reconstitution).
The city extension (Greenfield development) area is more than 250 acres with no upper limit.
Therefore, the city extension plans can cover several villages around the existing city/municipal limits in Goa. Attempts will be made to show existing village settlement areas of Goa as vacant areas/barren in the city extension (Greenfield development) plans. Why are the mega project developers getting excited these days to define their so-called model villages and CSR plans for the villages? Are the mega project developers attempting to own villages? Can we allow the mega project developers to define the land-use plans for our villages?
According to the smart cities guidelines, Greenfield developments are required around cities in order to address the needs of the expanding population. The local population in villages and towns of Goa is growing at a slow rate. However, there is rapid expansion of the floating migrant/tourist population in Goa. Are we attempting to transfer the present mess of urban areas to the surrounding peaceful villages in Goa with the Greenfield developments? Can we allow mega projects for unwanted urbanization of villages (through hidden long-term plans) to promote unsustainable tourist population growth in Goa?
