Very soon the three major towns in Goa, Panaji, Margao and Vasco will be turned into smart cities under the urban development ministry’s 100 smart cities in India project. According to the available information Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the proposed smart city and Atal Mission for the rejuvenation and urban transformation (AMRUT) projects in Delhi on Thursday. A delegate from Goa led by Deputy Chief Minister and Urban Development Minster Francis D’Souza left for the capital city of India on Wednesday to be a part of this ceremony.
Setting up 100 smart cities in India is an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reduce the pressure of Indian metros, Modi had promised 100 smart cities by 2022 to help meet the rush while campaigning for the general election last year. Today the union cabinet approved the 100 smart city projects which were announced by Union fiancé minister Shri Arun Jaitley in the first union budget of NDA government in the jult last year. The pompous promise of building 100 smart cities has been part of Modi’s acche din vision from the outset, and it would have been surprising if the budget had not made some mention of it.
Interacting with the media persons, D’Souza said he will not be submitting any projects to the Urban Development ministry on Thursday, but discussions pertaining to projects in Goa will be held in subsequent meetings. He said the delegation’s attempt will be to get maximum funds from the Centre. Central government is launching many schemes but Goa does not get benefited with all of them, recently Goa failed to get the funds under the JNNURM (Jawahar Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) while many other states have already benefited under the said scheme.
The CCP (Corporation of the City of Panaji has submitted 5 detailed project reports to DPRs out of which only 2 were sanctioned and are still awaiting for the funds from the centre. One of the projects has received the installment of Rs. 18 Crore for the project of 24 HRS water supplies to Panaji. D’souza had clarified to the media that the reason of losing the grant from the centre is due to the delay in submission of the proposal. He pointed out that the delay was because there were no experts to complete the DPRs on time, although consultants were appointed later.
Source: TNN
