SPV to be Formed for Panaji Smart City Roadmap

PANAJI:
Under the guidelines of the Smart City Mission, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is to be formed which will implement the Panaji Smart City roadmap which will lead to the transformation of the city into a smart city.
The SPV named ‘Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited’ was announced by Sidharth Kuncalienker, Vice-Chairman GSIDC, Chief Mentor, Smart City, Chairman EDC and MLA Panaji Constituency in the presence of Dipak Dessai, Commissioner, CCP and Swayandipta Pal Chaudhari, Executive-Director Finance, GSIDC and CEO, Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited.
The Centre had earlier announced the list of 13 cities which made it to the top of the list in the Fast Track Mode of the Smart City Submission of which Panaji won a coveted seat. Panaji is the second city after Dharamshala to incorporate an SPV.
The Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited will be governed by a Board of Directors and will plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the Smart City development projects as per guidelines formed by the central government. Urban Development Secretary Sudhir Mahajan, is the Chairman of SPV and Swayandipta Pal Chaudhari, Executive-Director Finance, GSIDC is the CEO of SPV.
Under the guidelines of the Smart City Mission mandate, each of the smart cities will now initiate the process of converting their plans into projects. To that end, the same cooperative-competition that was organised during the development of the smart city proposal, will continue during this phase.
This will be undertaken through a co-creation process with the stakeholders of the city wherein citizens will be involved in the ideation, strategizing and development of innovative and frugal urban solutions. To enable stakeholder participation, the ministry has developed guidelines to organise a ‘Make Your City Smart’ competition wherein citizens will be asked to conceptualise designs for a street, junction and park. In the case of Panaji, the areas that are shortlisted for the competition are Rua de Ourem street, the junction at the Old Patto Bridge near down The Road restaurant and the park around Mala lake. The participants will have to submit innovative concepts on how they envision these spaces to be developed.
The Make your City Smart competition is open to all citizens and the top three winning entries will earn cash prizes of Rs.1,00,000 (One Lakh) Rs. 30,000 (Thirty Thousand) and Rs. 20,000 (Twenty Thousand) respectively. The entries will be first shortlisted by a team assigned by the SPV and then presented before a five-member jury consisting of local officials, eminent citizens and experts. Details on the competition and rules of submission are available on imaginepanaji.com
The SPV has also announced a second stakeholder competition open to all citizens wherein participants will be asked to design a logo for Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited. The winning logo stands a chance to become the logo of the Smart City Panaji Programme and the same may be used as a reference for any future communication material.
The logo design should communicate the wider vision for a Smart Panaji- The City of Panaji will transform into a world-class city, achieving a better quality of life in a sustainable environment through economic growth and
citizen participation, while retaining our heritage and cultural diversity. In essence, the logo design should be unique and reflect the culture and future aspirations of Panaji.The top three entries will be awarded cash prizes of Rs. 25,000 (Twenty Five Thousand) Rs. 15,000 (Fifteen Thousand) and Rs. 10,000 (Ten Thousand) respectively. Details on the competition and rules of submission are available on imaginepanaji.com
Also, to facilitate reforms in all of the smart cities, the Ministry or Urban Development is conducting studies to provide technical assistance for reformation in three key areas. The first is understanding the potential of adverting revenue to the CCP. An untapped revenue source, the main function of this reform is to understand the revenue that can be generated from various mediums of advertising in the city.
It also seeks to optimize the advertising revenue by formulating a destination specific dynamic pricing module which will capitalise on the space used and enhance the municipal tax base. The revenue collected can be further used for the welfare of the city.
The second reform is in the area of municipal tax and fee improvement – improvement in property tax collections. The purpose of this reform is to enable the city administrative bodies to progress into efficient self-governing units by making them dependant on their own revenues, largely through Property Tax. Under the Smart City Mission tax coverage will be increased from under-assessed properties.
A roadmap for improvement in existing administrative system of collection and grievance redressal will be formulated. The third reform is development of strategies and implementation of plans for the reduction of Non
Revenue Water (NRW). There is a huge disparity between the quantity of water put into the distribution system and the quantity of water billed to consumers (also called “non-revenue water” [NRW]).
This affects the financial viability of water utilities through lost revenues and increased operational costs. Under Smart City Mission, Non-Revenue Water will be assessed and strategies will be developed for reduction of Non- Revenue water. The aim is to to push for the institutional and governance reforms that are necessary to establish sustainable public water utilities. All the studies are central govt funded projects with no burden on the state government.