The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has secured 4-star rating in the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0 awarded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MHUA).
Mayor R. Bhagyalakshmi, Commissioner Swapnil Dinakar Pundakar, along with other officials, received the award on Tuesday at the ongoing conference on ‘Smart Cities - Smart Urbanisation’ being organised by the MHUA in Surat.
Vijayawada was one of the few cities to receive the 4-star rating.
Ms. Bhagyalakshmi said though Vijayawada was not a part of the Smart Cities Mission, it was given the rating considering the various smart initiatives taken such as CLAP (Clean AP), installation of solar panels on existing government and school buildings, rolling out of 250 CNG autorickshaws for day-to-day garbage collection, and implementation of actions mentioned in the Water Resource Management Plan under AMRUT 2.0.
Mr. Swapnil Dinakar said many initiatives had been taken up for increasing the green belt by removing encroachments along the Krishna bank, canals and railway lines.
He said that the VMC had converted conventional street lights into LED lights and reduced power consumption by 50%. Mr. Swapnil said Vijayawada was the first city in the country to collect garbage from the doorstep of people by using CNG vehicles. Besides, it had a bio-mechanisation plant.
Solar projects
Visakhapatnam too received the 4-star rating. Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Commissioner G. Lakshmisha received the award. Mr. Lakshmisha gave a PowerPoint presentation on the solar projects in the Port City during the conference and gave details of the works being undertaken as part of the ‘Smart City’ project.
