Imagine Panaji to appoint consultant to prepare GIS masterplan

PANAJI: More than five years after the government approved the creation of a GIS-based masterplan for the state capital and the neighbouring villages, ImaginePanaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) has finally moved to appoint a consultant who will prepare the masterplan.
IPSCDL wants the consultant to survey an area of 91.7 sqkm, which includes Panaji and adjoining areas as part of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) of the Union ministry of Urban Development.
Smart City Mission officials said that IPSCDL will obtain the draft base map of the city from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) which will then be given to the consultant for integrating data about demography, infrastructure, amenities, vacant and government lands, socio-economic facilities and other inputs.
As part of the AMRUT Mission reforms, urban local bodies have to prepare urban planning and city level plans, including preparation of masterplan using GIS. Masterplans provide the basis for infrastructure provision, effective land use management and utilisation, spatial growth management, enable project planning, and urban management.

The draft masterplan needs to conform with the outline development plan and regional plan prepared by the town and country planning departmemt. “The horizon year for the draft masterplan will be 2041,” said an official.
According to data available, ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) has released the first instalment of Rs 23.7 lakh to IPSCDL under the sub-scheme on formulation of the local area plan (LAP) and town planning scheme (TPS) under AMRUT. The state high-powered steering committee (SHPSC) has approved the reparation of the masterplan using GIS in the state annual action plan (SAAP) in January 2016.
In 2017, IPSCDL announced that it had begun preparing a GIS-based masterplan by integrating geo-spatial data with a door-to-door survey. The aim, said then IPSCDL managing director Swayandipta Pal Chaudhuri, was to improve tax collection and prevent revenue leakages.
The Corporation of Panaji City (CCP) had prepared a city development plan (CDP) in 2007 and in 2013, CRISIL risk infrastructure revised the CDP with the funding obtained through the JNNURM scheme.