Teams up with GIZ India for climate-resilient urban plan
Panaji: Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) will soon have a comprehensive plan of Panaji’s topography, its drains and also street utilities.
The plan is being prepared under the Urban Act project designed to promote climate-resilient and data-driven urban development. IPSCDL has partnered with Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ India) for the same. The initiative signifies a comprehensive approach to addressing climate challenges through infrastructure mapping, enhanced resource management and sustainable city planning.
“Almost 98 per cent of the project is complete and the comprehensive plan is likely to be ready by next month,” said an IPSCDL official. The Urban Act project focuses on systematically understanding and addressing Panaji’s topography and drainage infrastructure, aiming to build a future-proof database that will guide climate-resilient urban planning.
Appointed as implementation partners, M/s Excel Geomatics and M/s Techno Essence Solutions, both based in Delhi, have been tasked with executing an advanced survey of the City’s topography, storm water drainage network and mapping street utilities.
“This thorough mapping initiative will provide a detailed, real-time view of critical infrastructure locations like trees along roads, street lights, sewerage manholes, footpaths and other utilities, storm water drains, watershed of the city and contour data necessary for anticipating and addressing urban challenges,” said the official.
Initiated in September 2024, the project commenced with establishing 24 Primary Survey Control Points (PSCPs) across the entire municipal area of 8.2 sq km. These points act as fixed reference spots, helping to combine drone and survey data into a unified map.
This entire data collection framework was designed in consultation with Water Resources Department (WRD), Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), Public Works Department (PWD) and IPSCDL. The validation is supervised by CCP, WRD and IPSCDL.
“Data from the survey will populate a comprehensive city database, supporting the development of predictive models for climate-resilient infrastructure planning. This data will be used to simulate urban scenarios and potential future climate impacts, providing decision-makers with the insights needed to improve drainage systems, reduce flood risks and ensure infrastructure durability,” said the official.
IPSCDL MD and CEO Sanjit Rodrigues said that they aim to get a comprehensive drainage map for the city of Panaji by the end of this project.
“Any further work on drains in the city should be based on the criticality and need as indicated through this scientifically captured and physically validated database,” he said.
