PANAJI: Stating that only new satellite cities to be set up across the country can become perfect smart cities, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza on Saturday said that an old city like Panaji can attain at the most 90 per cent perfection, during its proposed transformation into a smart city, under the Smart City Mission of the central government, as its metamorphosis would involve several constraints such as conservation of existing monuments, maintaining harmonious relationship with its existing environment, and so on.
“But that is the problem with most of the Indian cities, which have overgrown, in turn, experiencing collapse of their systems,” he said, adding that in most of the cities around the world, various systems are in place and these systems take care of themselves.
“However, even if we are able to achieve 90 per cent success, then it should be considered a big achievement,” D’Souza, who also holds the Urban Development portfolio stated, pointing out that states having large tracts of land should go for setting up new satellite cities under the Smart City Mission, as done in case of Chandigarh. “Panaji, on the other hand can develop itself into a smart city, in a phase-wise manner, providing good services to its residents such as e-services in the Corporation of the City of Panaji, high-speed internet, good sewage network and effective garbage treatment facility,” he said.
Delivering the key-note address on the topic ‘Goa Perspective for Smart Cities,’ at the two-day Elets Knowledge Exchange Goa – National Summit on Smart Cities in the Era of Digital India – being held in the city, the Deputy Chief Minister said that the CCP has to achieve the benchmark of a good city for Panaji, in the face of tough competition from other Indian cities selected under the Smart City Mission. City MLA Sidharth Kunkalienkar was also present on the occasion.
Maintaining that exchange of knowledge is important as one has to learn good practices prevalent in the world, D’Souza said that churning of ideas has begun under the Narendra Modi-led Indian government and we have to make use of these ideas. “Today’s citizen is in a hurry for development around him,” he said, mentioning that under the Smart City Concept, we need to follow harmonious makeover.
CCP Commissioner Deepak Desai, in his presentation said that CCP’s vision for Panaji is to transform the city into a world-class environmentally sustainable and ‘livable’ city for all involved, while preserving its heritage, cultural diversity and unique ecosystem.
During the session Shailesh Sawlani of India West, UBER; Sudhir Arya of mPesa Lead, Vodafone India Limited; and V Swaminathan of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited shared how their companies have offered smart, simple and yet technologically advanced financial related services through a few smart solutions.