Visakhapatnam: Apart from funding Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC), which is expected to spur growth in the state, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also assured transforming Vizag into a Smart City as part of union government’s 100 Smart Cities programme. Vizag has been chosen by the Union urban development ministry to be transformed into a Smart City after which a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)- Greater Visakha Smart City Corporation (GVSCC), has been launched by the state government to implement it.
The ADB has also prepared a basic concept plan of Vizag Smart City and is expected to prepare a full-fledged project plan in 2017, which was revealed in ADB’s Regional Cooperation Operations Business Plan for South Asia 2016-2018. This comes at a time when the ADB had agreed to double the funding to support India’s urban development from $2.6 billion per annum to $5 billion per annum. In one of the basic report of "ADB’s Support for Industrial Corridor and Smart Cities in Andhra Pradesh" prepared by ADB’s south Asia department energy specialist Satoshi Kurimoto, gaps in various sectors in Vizag were discussed. The ADB has proposed to fund Vizag Smart City plans under its Capacity Development Technical Assistance (CDTA), in energy, industry and trade, transport, water and other urban infrastructure.
ADB had already assessed the physical infrastructure gaps in Vizag in water supply, sanitation coverage, sewerage connection, solid waste management, electricity, telephony and Information-Commu-nications Technology (ICT) sectors. The bank authorities felt that 24x7 supply of water is absent due to high-level of non-revenue water, sewerage connections was existing only in 60 per cent households while the benchmark is 100 per cent. ADB also felt that there is a need to construct the waste water treatment plants with energy efficient and mechanised treatment processes.
Along with AP, ADB will prepare smart city projects for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka in India. As per the basic concept plan, in phase one, services related to social infrastructure like citizen service delivery system & e-Governance, Geospatial System (GIS), participatory & connected government, healthcare & education will be developed. Under services related to urban infrastructure, energy, water management will be developed. In phase-II, social inclusion, community mapping, environment sustainability and under services related to urban infrastructure, solid waste management, sewage management, smart buildings, city-wide Wi-Fi will be developed.
