Team Herald
PANJIM: The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) will introduce Global Positioning System (GPS) and diesel based vehicle tracking for its garbage collection trucks in the city. The Corporation will also launch a mobile app for online payment of taxes.
Addressing a gathering on ‘Way Forward for Smart City and AMRUT in Panaji’, CCP Commissioner Deepak Dessai said that under the mission. “While GPS will help in monitoring the movement of the vehicle carrying garbage, the diesel tracking system will give us details about the diesel use, consumption, kilometres traveled, etc,” Dessai said.
The Commissioner, however, lamented that though the council’s garbage collection and segregation system ranks 16th in the country, it lacks a proper garbage dumping site, restricting it from collecting non-segregated waste. “We don’t have a dumping site, where we can segregate non-segregated waste and treat it. This is where we lack,” he said.
On the occasion of the first anniversary of the launch of Smart City Development Mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the State government announced its road map for the implementation of the two schemes for Panjim city.
Panjim is amongst the 33 smart cities selected by the Union Ministry for Urban Development for grants under the Smart City Mission. A whopping Rs 536 crore will be spent by the Centre and State on transforming the city over the next five years. On the other hand, under AMRUT, nearly Rs 130 crore will be spent for city development.
Dessai admitted that CCP’s financial crunch has restricted it from funding for the two schemes. “Panjim Corporation is a very small corporation compared to other cities in the country and financially we are also not very strong. Hence on the financial front, we are not contributing any share in the implementation of these schemes. The funding is from Centre and State government,” he said.
He announced that under the two schemes, the emphasis would be on providing 24×7 potable water and electricity to the city consumers and 100 percent sewerage connection.
Speaking on the occasion, SPV CEO Swayandipta Chaudhuri said the special purpose vehicle will again go to public and repriortise the city needs. “People’s participation is very important for the implementation of the schemes,” he said.
