MoHUA and Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Ltd. organize CEOs conference for 100 Smart Cities in Panaji

New Delhi: Chief Minister of Goa, Dr. Pramod Sawant inaugurated the Smart Cities CEOs Conference on Data and Technology today in Panaji. Rohit Monserrate, Mayor, Corporation of City of Panaji, Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director and senior officers of the Centre and State Government were present on this occasion. The two-day conference is being organized by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in coordination with Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Ltd (IPSCDL). Hosted by IPSCDL, the conference witnessed the participation of Chief Executive Officers/Municipal Commissioners of 100 Smart Cities along with officials from the Central, State government, Industry and knowledge partners.



The conference seeks to enable peer learning and exchange of ideas so that best practices may be adopted across all Smart Cities. On the opening day, Smart City CEOs/officials presented Business Plans and Standard Operation Procedures of their Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCC).

Addressing the conference, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant said that there is a need for all cities to identify long-term revenue models based on the infrastructure that is being created under the Smart Cities Mission. He added that Smart Cities are not mere dreams or theoretical concepts but the greatest opportunity to improve people’s lives.



Kunal Kumar, Mission Director, Smart Cities Mission said that the time had come for innovative, out of the box thinking. He stated that it was time for CEOs to take control and decide the destinations of their projects, rather than being driven to it.

Talking about projects in Panaji, Mamu Hage, CEO, IPSCDL in her address said that various projects like the Integrated Command and Control Centre, Electric Buses, Mandovi Promenade, taken up under the Smart City Mission have great scope for revenue generation. She stated that monetizing these projects can bring in additional revenue for the city

The conference also saw discussions on the ‘SmartProcure’ guidelines for procurement of innovation, wherein officials from Smart Cities of Shimla, Bhopal and Ahmedabad shared their success stories. MoHUA is expected to announce the ICCC Awards to reward the most innovative and outstanding efforts of cities in creating maximum impact through their ICCCs during the closing ceremony.