Smart City Plans Underway

Plans for turning Visakhapatnam into a smart city are underway. Municipal Commissioner M Hari Narayanan announced that there will soon be a call for proposals for various projects in the smart city. Proposals will be called for implementation in area-based development (ABD) approach.

The proposals would be for smart schools, 24×7 water supply, public toilets, cycling tracks, bus stops and footpaths. The GVMC has put aside 1700 sq km of area for the development of the smart city. A meeting will be held today and tomorrow involving local people, teachers and parents about the development of the smart schools.

In the newly built smart city, as per instructions of the Union Ministry of Urban Development, ‘Complete Streets’ would prioritise pedestrians and footpaths would be developed to the best standards, just like the footpaths on Beach Road.

An RFP would be released in the first week of next month for the command and control centre that is also proposed to be a part of the smart city. Hari Narayanan said that it is their intention to deliver the best to people by taking in their views. The USTDA has finished the first phase of the smart city’s master plan with a strong recommendation for skill development and transport sector.

Importance is being given to all the parts of the smart city’s core infrastructure. A non-revenue water project has been sanctioned at Rs 340 crore as a part of the Visakhapatnam-Chennai corridor that is being funded by the Asian Development Bank. A detailed project report is being readied for the same.

Under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), water distribution lines worth Rs 150 crore was proposed. A detailed project report for underground drainage in Gajuwaka and Malkapuram was proposed at a cost of Rs 500 crore to Andhra Pradesh Urban Infrastructure Finance Corporation.