SHWETA KAMAT
What next? Will it be smart? Those are the questions Panjimites are asking, as their city has finally got selected for development under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Smart City Mission project. However, for the powers that be, the question is who will implement the project. The biggest roadblock likely to spring up in the implementation of the Smart City Mission is the tussle between the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) and Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) as both agencies intend to bring the Smart City project under their ambit.
Last week, Panjim was ranked 8th in the Fast-Track Competition of the Smart City mission. Over the next five years, a whopping Rs 534.12 crore is to be spent on making the city ‘smart’, with the State and Centre contributing Rs 267.06 crore each. With Panjim’s Smart City Proposal (SCP) getting selected, the next step is setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for its implementation. Though the SPV would be an independent body, it is to be seen whether GSIDC acts as the ‘boss’.
The tug-of-war between the local urban body CCP and the nodal agency GSIDC, under whose supervision the SCP was drafted by consultant ICLEI South Asia, is not going to make implementation of the scheme easy.
While CCP claims that implementation of Smart City Mission, will boost functioning of the corporation, GSIDC is in no mood to hand over the large project to the urban body, which is financially in the red and technically unsound, and reasons that it should be done only through the SVP.
“CCP had passed a clear resolution somewhere in November-December last year, wherein it had clearly said that GSIDC’s job would be restricted to the appointment of a consultant for drafting SCP and getting it approved. The implementation would be done by CCP. Now GSIDC wants to control everything,” Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado told Herald.
“We don’t want CCP to be known only for cleaning drains, cutting trees, etc. The Smart City Mission will widen our scope and will give us a much-needed boost,” Furtado said, adding that this will also force the government to recruit required technical staff for the corporation, a demand that has been pending for years.
The Mayor said that since the maintenance costs would be handled by the Corporation, the implementation and revenue generated out of the infrastructure created should come to CCP. The urban local body’s contribution towards the operations and maintenance cost is Rs 10.95 crore.
On the other hand, GSIDC, which has initiated the process to set up a SPV, claims that the project will be implemented by the SPV which will be an independent body. “It is proposed to give complete flexibility to the SPV to implement and manage the smart city project,” a senior official said.
The official, quoting some of the delegation powers of the SPV, said that all the rights and obligations of the municipal council and also decision making powers available with CCP with respect to the smart city will be delegated to SPV and CEO. All GSIDC heads, including the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, were unavailable for comments.
As per the salient features of the mission, the implementation of the project at the city level will be done by a SPV, headed by a full-time Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and will have nominees of the Central and State governments and urban local body on it. The SPV will plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the development project.
The SPV will be a limited company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 at the city-level, in which the State and urban body will be the promoters having 50:50 equity shareholding.
Further, as per guidelines, at the city level, the Smart City Advisory Forum to be headed by the District Collector, will have to be constituted to monitor the implementation of the project.
