Fair Recreational Activity and Non-Competitive Involvement in Sports Urban Connect Scheme (F.R.A.N.C.I.S Urban Connect Scheme)

What is the F.R.A.N.C.I.S Urban Connect Scheme?

Fair Recreational Activity and Non-Competitive Involvement in Sports Urban Connect Scheme, known by its acronym F.R.A.N.C.I.S Urban Connect Scheme, is an urban sports infrastructure scheme of the Department of Urban Development, Government of Goa, launched in 2013. Its stated aim is to provide safe play areas for healthy recreation and sports to urban communities.

The Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) acts as the nodal agency and implements the scheme, which operates within the provisions of the Integrated Development of Major Towns Scheme (IDMT).

The name carries the scheme's philosophy. This is deliberately about non-competitive involvement in sport, a walking track for an evening, a court a neighbourhood can use, a place for children to play: rather than about building venues for tournaments. Assistance is provided to develop safe play areas in urban spaces, benefiting local municipal bodies, schools, colleges, registered sports clubs and registered housing societies.

The delivery model is unusual and worth understanding before applying. The applicant provides the land; GSUDA designs, builds and transfers the facility; and the applicant then runs and maintains it. The applicant does not receive cash to build with.

Who is eligible for the F.R.A.N.C.I.S Urban Connect Scheme?

You can apply if your entity owns land of not less than 2,000 square metres within the municipal jurisdiction and is one of these:

• a local municipal body;
• a school, college or other such institution;
• a registered sports club;
• a registered housing society; or
• any other registered body espousing the cause of physical fitness and sport.

There is one relaxation on location. An applicant whose land falls in any of the peripheral Panchayat jurisdictions may be considered eligible, even though the scheme is framed around municipal areas.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are an individual. This is an institutional scheme, and there is no personal benefit under it. A resident who wants a play area in their locality should approach their municipal body, school or housing society, which can apply.
• Your entity does not own the land. Ownership status is a specific field in the application form; a lease or a permission to use is a different thing.
• The land is smaller than 2,000 square metres. This is the threshold, and it is roughly half an acre.
• The land is outside municipal jurisdiction and not in a peripheral Panchayat jurisdiction that the nodal agency is willing to consider.
• Your entity is unregistered, where the category requires registration: sports clubs, housing societies and other bodies espousing physical fitness and sport must be registered.
• You intend to operate the facility commercially. Facilities created or upgraded under the scheme's Memorandum of Understanding may only be used for the specified purposes on a non-commercial basis.

How much funding is available?

Funding assistance is graded by the class of the local body's area:

These are ceilings, not entitlements, and the actual project cost follows from the feasibility report GSUDA prepares.

What facilities can be built?

Sports facilities permitted under the scheme:

• Walking track
• Volleyball court
• Basketball court
• Athletics track of 200 metres
• Football field of 30 by 40 metres
• Hockey field of 40 by 20 metres
• Artificial rock climbing wall
• Tennis court

Dimensions may vary depending on land availability, so a smaller plot does not automatically rule out a discipline.

Surface quality preferences. Football is given preference for FIFA approved synthetic turfs, which reflects the sport's standing in Goa. Where the nodal agency determines that scope exists, it may also consider laying IAAF and FIH approved synthetic surfaces for athletics and hockey.

Supporting facilities permitted alongside the sports infrastructure:

• Changing rooms for men and women
• Toilet blocks
• Storage space for equipment
• Illumination
• Mild steel fencing
• Any other requirement deemed essential by the Nodal Officer

Beyond the physical build, the scheme encourages corporate sponsorships and public-private partnership models for future sustainability, and requires the beneficiary to ensure the availability of coaching facilities and linkages with local sports associations.

What obligations come with the facility?

The Memorandum of Understanding signed after approval is where the real conditions sit, and they run for five years.

• The MoU is effective for five years from execution.
• During that period the beneficiary cannot alter, dismantle or dispose of any assets created under the scheme.
• The facilities may be used only for the specified purposes, on a non-commercial basis.
• The beneficiary must provide generally free access to non-formal facilities and implement affordable pay-and-play schemes for the other facilities.
• The beneficiary is responsible for maintaining and operating the facilities.
• The nodal agency conducts periodic community impact studies.

The free-access and pay-and-play conditions are the heart of the scheme. A registered club that expects to build a members-only ground with public money is applying under the wrong scheme.

What documents are required?

The nodal agency may call for any documents required to verify the information provided in the application form.

How to apply for the F.R.A.N.C.I.S Urban Connect Scheme

1. Establish that the entity owns at least 2,000 square metres within the municipal jurisdiction, or in a peripheral Panchayat jurisdiction, and pull the survey numbers and ownership records.
2. Decide the facility mix from the permitted list, sized to the land available, and identify which supporting facilities — changing rooms, toilet blocks, storage, illumination, fencing. The project needs.
3. Prepare a self-contained business plan establishing project sustainability, including how operations and maintenance costs will be met. This is the part of the application most likely to decide the outcome.
4. Document your existing sports infrastructure discipline-wise, your management structure for operating both existing and proposed facilities, your ability to deploy coaches and support staff, and your linkages with the relevant local sports associations.
5. Explain the community impact; how the proposed infrastructure will contribute to community development and to the identification of new talent.
6. Fill out the application form (Annexure 1) with all required details and submit it to the Nodal Agency, the Goa State Urban Development Agency, with the supporting documents.
7. Await scrutiny. The Director of the Department of Urban Development appoints a scrutiny committee to review the application. The committee recommends the case to the Nodal Officer, who, in consultation with the Chairman of the Nodal Agency, approves the application.
8. Sign the Memorandum of Understanding (Annexure 2) with the Nodal Agency, setting out the terms and conditions for development and maintenance.
9. Let GSUDA implement. The Nodal Agency draws up the feasibility report, designs, builds and transfers the facilities to the beneficiary, who then maintains and operates them.

Who decides, and how?

Three actors decide an application in sequence:

1. The scrutiny committee, appointed by the Director of the Department of Urban Development, reviews the application.
2. The Nodal Officer, in consultation with the Chairman of the Nodal Agency, approves the application for benefits under the scheme.
3. The Nodal Agency (GSUDA) then executes: feasibility report, design, build, transfer.

After handover, the Nodal Agency continues to conduct periodic community impact studies, which is the mechanism by which the scheme checks that a facility is actually being used by the community rather than sitting locked.

Why do applications fail?

• Land below 2,000 square metres, which is the scheme's threshold.
• Land not owned by the applicant. Ownership status is a specific field in Annexure 1.
• Land outside municipal jurisdiction and not accepted as peripheral Panchayat land.
• No credible business plan. A proposal that cannot show how operations and maintenance will be paid for after handover fails the sustainability test.
• No management structure or coaching capacity. The scheme asks the applicant to demonstrate the ability to deploy coaches and support staff.
• A commercial operating model. Non-commercial use, free access to non-formal facilities and affordable pay-and-play are conditions of the MoU.
• Unregistered applicant, where the category requires registration.
• No linkages with local sports associations, which the scheme requires the applicant to establish.

Where do I complain?

The Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) is the nodal agency and the first point of contact for an applicant whose proposal is stalled. The Director, Department of Urban Development, Government of Goa appoints the scrutiny committee and is the escalation above the Nodal Officer.

The Government of Goa's departmental pages and public grievance route at goa.gov.in are the further escalation path.

Practical points

• The applicant supplies land and running capacity; the Government supplies the build. Anyone expecting a cash grant will misread this scheme.
• The business plan is the application. Land and eligibility get you considered; sustainability gets you approved.
• Plan for a five-year lock-in. No asset created can be altered, dismantled or disposed of during the MoU period.
• Free access is not optional. Non-formal facilities must generally be free, and the rest must run on affordable pay-and-play.
• Confirm the scheme's current position before investing effort. F.R.A.N.C.I.S was launched in 2013, and an applicant should check with GSUDA whether it is currently open and what the present application format is.

How to check your application status

F.R.A.N.C.I.S Urban Connect Scheme has no online tracking portal or application ID system of the kind used in cash-transfer schemes. Because the process runs through a sequence of institutional approvals rather than an automated workflow, checking status means following up at each stage with the office that is currently holding the file.

• After submission, confirm receipt with the Nodal Agency. The application (Annexure 1) is submitted to the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA). Ask for an acknowledgement or a diary/inward number at the time of submission, and quote this number in every later follow-up so the office can locate the file quickly.
• Track the scrutiny stage separately. The Director, Department of Urban Development appoints a scrutiny committee to examine the application. An applicant that has heard nothing for several weeks should check with the Department of Urban Development, not only GSUDA, since the file physically moves to the committee during this stage.
• Ask specifically where in the sequence the file sits. The three checkpoints are: scrutiny committee review, approval by the Nodal Officer in consultation with the Chairman of the Nodal Agency, and, once approved, preparation of the Memorandum of Understanding (Annexure 2). A useful status question is simply which of these three the application has reached.
• After the MoU stage, status shifts to project execution. Once the MoU is signed, tracking is no longer about approval but about GSUDA's feasibility report, design and construction timeline for the facility, which the beneficiary should follow up on with GSUDA's project or engineering wing rather than the sanctioning side.
• Follow up in person or in writing rather than by an online check. Since institutional applicants (municipal bodies, schools, colleges, registered clubs and societies) typically have an authorised signatory or office bearer designated to correspond with government departments, that individual should be the one making enquiries, referencing the acknowledgement number, to keep the correspondence trail consistent.
• Use the Government of Goa's general grievance channels as a last resort. If GSUDA and the Department of Urban Development do not respond after reasonable follow-up, the goa.gov.in public grievance route is the wider escalation path available to any applicant dealing with a state department in Goa.

Because there is no published turnaround time for scrutiny or approval, applicants should build periodic, documented follow-up into their own process rather than expecting a status update to arrive unprompted.