Vizag receives a 4-star rating in CSCAF for mitigating climate change

Vizag has received a 4-star rating for mitigating climate change impact and inculcating a climate-sensitive approach towards urban planning. This evaluation was based on the city’s readiness report on the Climate-Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) released by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Friday. With this rating, it’s evident that the city has made positive progress on previous ratings it received from the Centre.

A total of 126 cities including 100 smart cities and 26 cities with a population of 5,00,000 participated in the second edition of the assessment that first took place in September 2020. The participating cities were analysed on five key parameters with 28 indicators. The key parameters were urban planning, green cover and biodiversity, energy and green buildings, mobility and air quality, water management and waste management. Of the 126 cities that participated, 9 cities got a 4-star rating with no city receiving the 5-star rating. All of them lacked either in mobility and air quality or water and energy themes indicating that efforts need to be put in the aforementioned criteria. On the other side, only 50% of the cities failed to maintain a minimum of 12-18% green cover.

The other 8 cities of India that received a 4-star rating are Vijayawada, Ahmedabad, Indore, Pimpri Chinchwad, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara, and Pune. Speaking after releasing the report, Mr. Kunal Kumar, the Mission Director of the Ministry’s Smart Cities Mission said that the assessment, which was only a ranking until now, will incentivise cities with funds to invite better competition from the coming edition onwards.

With Vizag and Vijayawada being among the 9 cities with a climate-sensitive approach towards urban planning, the temple city of Andhra Pradesh, Tirupati has received several awards in the Smart Cities award contest. Tirupati has received various accolades and recognitions under various themes. Under the social aspects, Tirupati received first place for its theme of health benchmark for municipal schools projects and stood third for its renewable energy generation project under the environmental theme.