SMART CITY: No clarity on projects completed, implemented & payouts made
the goan I network
PANAJI
Residents and visitors who contribute to thousands of footfalls in the capital city may have been left on their own to face the pain of the rain, but there’s one ilk of people whose spirits aren’t dampening: Consultants and contractors.
Over the last couple of years, nearly Rs 100 crore have flowed out from the coffers of the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Corporation Ltd and into accounts of consultants and contractors.
Furnishing these details, Goa’s Urban Development Minister Milind Naik also told the Goa legislative Assembly in a written reply that the IPSCDCL, the special purpose vehicle floated by the State government to develop the capital city into one of India’s nearly 40 ‘smart’ cities, has thus far received Rs 191.20 crore in liquid funds -- Rs 118.20 crore from the Central government and Rs 73 crore from the State government.
Naik was responding to an unstarred question posed by Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, who in a series of supplementaries asked what exactly the smart city concept for Panaji was, list of consultants, contractors and engineers empanelled to implement it, individual projects completed and payouts made.
While the minister’s written reply skipped listing out whether any individual projects were completed, he nonetheless informed the House that Larsen and Toubro, contracted to implement the Master System Integrator for Goa Intelligent City Management System, has been paid Rs 22.49 crores as ‘mobilization advance’.
Another Rs 32 lakh have been paid to company called M/s Abha Narain Lamba and Associates as fees for consultation (pre-tendering) for the Restoration, Refurbishment and Interior Design of Office Premises of IPSCDCL. The contract is yet to be awarded.
Naik’s written reply also said that another amount of Rs 14.6 lakh was paid to a contractor named M/s Salgaonkar Sanchar for the project ‘Smart Radios Wireless Network with Mast Tower for Panaji City. The minister did not, however, give any details of the completion or progress status of the project.
The project to convert Ribandar’s overhead power lines to underground cabling awarded to M/s Shalaka Infra-Tech (I) Pvt Ltd, has so far seen an outgo of Rs 42 crore to the contractor, the reply added.
For consultancy, a firm by the name M/s Urban Mass Transit Company Ltd, has been paid Rs 28 lakh, for submitting an ‘Inception Report’ for the Comprehensive Mobility Plan for the State of Goa and Parking Master Plan for Panaji.
The consultancy firm engaged by the IPSCDCL for ‘Comprehensive Project Management’ including consultancy for design, design review, detailed engineering and project management of various urban infrastructure development projects for Panaji City was paid Rs 95.35 crore, Naik’s written reply adds.
