After Panjim was selected to be one among 98 cities chosen to be part of the Smart City Mission, existing city plans on paper were left exactly where they were. Following the appointment of a consultant for the mission, a new plan will be drafted .
The State Capital- one among 98 cities chosen under the Smart City Mission by the Union Ministry for Urban Development- having so many Holistic developmental plans in place, continues to run without solutions for some of the major issues and menaces including garbage, traffic mismanagement, parking, beautification of St Inez creek which has been haunting Panjimites for decades.
To deal with these issues, successive State governments came out with ample number of developmental plans and policies, with not a single plan being executed till date. City Sanitation Plan, City Development Plan, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) (Central government), City Mobility Plan prepared by the Charles Correa Foundation, plan for Development of St Inez Creek, City Solid Waste Management Plan, etc all only remained on paper.
Now with the Smart City Mission- it is likely that the existing plans will be over-powered by the Smart City Action Plan, which will be freshly drafted by the new consultant under the Mission. When contacted, the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) Mayor Shubham Chodankar said these plans are ‘supper master plans’ for the city. “Under the smart city mission, the consultant will be drafting the plan analyzing all the existing plans and by incorporating additional ideas,” he said.
The Holistic Master Plan- the brain child of former Chief Minister and Panjim MLA Manohar Parrikar drafted by LKS Global and unveiled in 2014 dealt with mobility, utilities, green and public spaces, heritage and city branding and continues to be on paper as no funds came in to execute it. A team from LKS Global, with representatives of LKS India had studied Panjim’s problem areas and had worked out a holistic master plan. The only progress of the plan was that it was opened to the public domain.
The City Sanitation plan; drafted by management consultancy and engineering firm Royal Haskoning DHV had outlined detailed recommendations and suggestions to tackle the sanitation in Panjim city for the next 35 years. Meanwhile, the City Development Plan aimed to develop the infrastructure of the capital city. However, both the plans are yet to be implemented.
In the meantime, under JNNURM, CCP was sanctioned around Rs 100 crore for development and beautification of St Inez creek and solid waste treatment facility at Bainguinim. However, the delay on the part of the CCP to submit a detailed project report for both, forced the Union Ministry not to allocate the funds during the financial year 2014-15 and 2015-16, with CCP losing out on the funds.
Under the City Solid Waste Management Plan, though CCP managed to begin door-to-door collection of household waste, with no proper treatment facility in place, it has led to major problems. The non-functioning treatment facility at Patto, delay in setting up the facility at Bainguinim and at an area behind Heera petrol pump, has worsened the situation with no proper facility in place to treat the garbage waste generated every day in the city.
