Team Herald
PANJIM: The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) approved a Rs 1099.94 crore revised Smart City Proposal (SCP) for Panjim on Wednesday. This will be submitted to the Union Ministry for Urban Development under the ‘fast-track competition’ on April 5. The SCP has focused on Rs 396 crore spending under public private partnership (PPP).
The SCP drafted by the consultant ICLEI South Asia, will now be placed before the State Level High Powered Steering Committee (HPSC) on Thursday, wherein written certification would be taken from the government assuring that the State will fund CCP’s share of 25 percent towards implementing the mission.
Panjim failed to find a place in the first 20 cities selected for the Smart City Mission in January. The city now ranks 5th in the fast track competition, which has 22 other cities competing.
The consultant on Wednesday presented the revised proposal with estimated project cost of Rs 1099.94 crore, with Rs 547 crore shared by the State and Centre, respectively, over the next five years. Another Rs 396 crore is expected to be funded under PPP and Rs 88 crore under the AMRUT scheme of the Central Government.
While CCP’s share of Rs 273.5 crore (50 percent of State share of Rs 547 crore) will be funded by the State, the corporation has decided to bear the maintenance cost of the assets, which is estimated at Rs 67.08crore.
“Union Ministry has also launched a scheme called Swadesh Darshan Scheme, under which each State is entitled for funds of Rs 100 crore for development. Goa will also benefit under this scheme but currently, there is no sanction from the Centre,” the consultant told the councilors.
“State government has already made a budgetary provision of Rs 80 crore in 2016-17 Budget. During the HPSC committee on Thursday, we will seek written certification from government assuring to fund the CCP share,” CCP Commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues said. The State government had earlier sent a Rs 981.11crore SCP for Panjim. The revised plan has estimated more funds. Under the Pan City solution, while retaining the transport system package which includes hop-on hop-off buses, cycling track, pay parking, etc, the Consultant in their revised SCP has restricted the services covered under ‘ICT Enabled Municipal Services’ by focusing only on the solid waste management facility.
The revised SCP has attached additional information regards to ongoing city based development projects, their date of completion, kind of services, etc.
CORPORATOR QUESTIONS CONSULTANT’S WORK
Smart City Mission consultant ICLEI South Asia was taken to task by CCP Corporator Rahul Lotlikar who charged that despite being an empanelled agency by the Union Urban Development Ministry it failed to make a productive SCP for Panjim. “Goa did not fail to make the list of first 20 cities but it was failure on part of the consultant. The consultant failed to address the issues properly in SCP. They claim themselves to be experts in this field but their proposal does not sound so,” Lotlikar said, leaving the consultant officials speechless.
“As an experienced agency, it was their duty to ensure that they give the best product, but I found that their SCP was a trial model. They were not at all serious on their work,” he added raising questions of the consultants being unaware of what was required. Quoting the Union Ministry for Urban Development for State reply in the Parliament, Lotlikar said the Panjim SCP had some major design flaws and that the same remain unanswered in the revised plan. “They (consultant) have not learnt from the mistake. The major issue of inclusiveness remains untouched even in the modified plan. I feel our consultant is not good enough,” the Corporator said.
