Municipal Commissioner shares Smart City Mission action plan for Vizag

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Commissioner G Srijana, in her Independence Day speech on Thursday, announced that Vizag bagged 8th position in the smart city rankings released by the Union Ministry of Urban Development. Presenting the statistics of Vizag Smart City mission, the GVMC Commissioner stated that 70 new projects were proposed with an expenditure of Rs 2,909 crores for the smart city development.

“While 22 projects worth Rs 260 crores have been completed, 26 more projects, estimated to cost around Rs 577 crores are currently underway. The projects under the Smart Cities mission include uninterrupted water supply, sewerage system, underground cabling project, green space development, smart streets, shoreline protection, and beachfront development,” she said.

Sharing further details, G Srijana added, “In the 2017-18 financial year, 51 projects were proposed including 25 pan-city projects and 26 area-based development (ABD) projects. While 17 of those projects have been completed with an expenditure of Rs 111.68 crores, 10 more projects worth Rs 314.55 crores are underway. Additionally, two works under convergence worth Rs 20.50 crores have been completed and seven works under convergence are under progress in Vizag”.

As 70 more projects are yet to be launched, the Municipal Commissioner said that the State and Central governments will be sanctioning Rs 500 crore each. Rest of the required funds will be mobilized through various means to complete the proposed projects, she further added.

The Smart City Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting programme launched by the Government of India in 2016 with a motto to transform 100 cities across the country into self-sustainable cities.