As a follow-up to the US India Business Conclave on Smart Cities held last month in New Delhi, an American delegation met the officials of the city administration here at VUDA Office on Friday to discuss modalities for extending aid from the US government in developing Visakhapatnam into a Smart City.
The visit was intended to have a preliminary study of the ground realities and areas of co-operation, said Dillon Banerjee, Counsellor for Commercial Affairs, the US Embassy, New Delhi.
The delegation interacted with Managing Director of AP Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation Y. Madhusudhan Reddy, Vizag Port Trust Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu, Collector N. Yuvaraj, in charge Commissioner of GVMC and joint Collector Praveen Kumar and in charge Vice-Chairman of VUDA and CMD of APEPDCL M.V. Seshagiri Babu.
The team mainly discussed the availability of resources, local needs and necessity of further infrastructure to shape Vizag as a global city, funding aspects from State and Union governments, studies and surveys and other issues pertaining to cooperation from the US government. The city was identified along with Ajmer and Allahabad to be developed as smart cities with cooperation of the US government.
Other members of the team are: Nehal Sanghvi, senior advisor for Information and Partnership, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), New Delhi, John Mataya, Political Economic Associate and Satya Prabha, Senior Commercial Specialist, both from the American Consulate, Hyderabad.
A presentation on the city and its developmental activities was made.
The meeting resolved to evolve the action plan for the Smart City duly following the means and methods prescribed by the Government of India, with priority and keen study of funding aspects.
VUDA Chief Urban Planner R.J. Vidyullatha, GVMC Chief Engineer Durga Prasad, Executive Engineer K.V.N. Ravi and Chief Medical Officer (Health) M.S.N. Raju were present.
