VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada was placed among the top-performing cities in the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0. The city was awarded for achieving a four-star rating among nine cities.
Vijayawada Mayor R. Bhagyalakshmi, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation commissioner Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar along with Deputy City Planner Jubin C. Roy, CMOH Dr G. Geethabai and additional commissioner (projects) K.Venkata Satyavathi received the award.
The award was presented at a three-day event, ‘Smart Cities, Smart Urbanisation’, organised by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs that began in Surat on April 18. The event is to highlight important initiatives being implemented in 100 Smart Cities.
Union ministers Hardeep S. Puri and Mansukh Mandaviya, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel,
Union ministers of state Kaushal Kishore and Darshana Jardosh participated in event.
Bhagyalakshmi stated that even though Vijayawada was not a part of Smart Cities Mission, the city has achieved a four-star rating in the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework. She explained that the city had undertaken initiatives such as CLAP Mission, installation of solar panels on government school building rooftops, deploying 250 CNG autorickshaws with geotagging for collection of solid waste, the proposed for rejuvenation and conservation of water bodies and implementation of Water Resource Management Plan (City Water Balance Plan and City Water Action Plan) under AMRUT 2.0.
VMC commissioner Pundkar said the VMC had halved power consumption by replacing conventional street lights with LED lights. He stated that Vijayawada is the first city in the state to start waste collection at the doorstep. The city has a bio-mechanisation plant based on the energy produced a 20 MLD STP functions. He added that action was taken taken to install continuous air quality monitoring stations.
