The present invention provides disintegrable, near-infra red (NIR) responsive TPGS comprised gold coated poly-(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanostructures. The present invention also provides a process for the preparation of the afore-mentioned TPGS comprised gold coated poly-(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanostructures. The present invention further provides 10 use of disintegrable, near-infra red (NIR) responsive TPGS comprised gold coated poly-(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanostructures for biological applications such as multimodal imaging and passively targeted photothermal therapy of cancer.