Panaji: State cabinet on Saturday granted its approval to repurpose and transition Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) into a state-level urban development special purpose vehicle (SPV) to complete the projects and hand them over to the respective departments.IPSCDL is an SPV established in 2016 by govt for the implementation of Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), and other central or state govt initiatives and projects aimed at upgradation of urban development and infrastructure enhancement.IPSCDL has undertaken a total of 51 projects under Smart Cities Mission and under AMRUT Mission, consisting of a wide range of sectors, including roads, smart transportation, integrated command and control centre (ICCC), urban beautification, softscaping, and more.The cabinet said that during the mission period, IPSCDL developed robust institutional capabilities, including professional project management systems, skilled and trained technical and managerial manpower, experience in procurement, contract management and ICT-based governance platforms and citizen-centric services.“These capacities represent significant public investment and institutional value, which merit long-term utilization beyond the formal closure of the smart cities mission,” the cabinet noted. “The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA), recognising the strategic importance of Smart City SPVs and ICCCs, has issued an advisory urging all states and Union territories to integrate their SPVs into long-term urban governance and development frameworks.”The repurposed IPSCDL shall function as an agile, multi-functional urban institution, supporting state govt, urban local bodies (ULBs), and line departments in planning, implementation, operations, and innovation in the urban sector, and shall develop and implement projects/schemes.
