Two cities of Andhra on toppers' list

Visakhapatnam/ Vijayawada: Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam are among nine Indian cities which have been awarded a 4-star rating under the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0. A total of 126 cities, including 100 smart cities and 26 cities with a population of over 500,000, participated in the 2020 assessment cycle.

As a part of the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0 (CSCAF), Visakhapatnam bagged a 4-star rating in overall performance and a 5-star rating in urban planning, green cover, and biodiversity, both of which are the highest in the categories in the results declared by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in which 126 cities took part.

The GVMC scored a 5-star rating in waste management which is the highest in the category and a 3-star rating in energy and green building, the second-highest. However, in mobility and air quality, and water management, the corporation received 3-star ratings.

Terming it as one of the proud moments, GVMC Commissioner G Srijana said, "Visakhapatnam bagged 4-star rating in overall performance and a 5-star rating in urban planning, green cover and biodiversity and in waste management. The agenda is to score the top ranks in all the categories next time."

Earlier, the All-Abilities Park at RK Beach surfaced in the final list of the much-coveted World Smart Cities Awards 2020. The GVMC and Greater Visakhapatnam Smart City Corporation Limited (GVSCCL) took part in the annual Smart City Expo World Congress held at Barcelona, Spain, and included the park under the 'Social integration through the creation of all ability public spaces – parks for all abilities' project in the living and inclusion award category.

Visakhapatnam competed with Istanbul, Metropolitan Municipality in Turkey, and Government of the State of Alagoas, Brazil for the award. Likewise, the city won two awards at the third Apex Conference of Smart Cities represented by the GVMC. In this, Visakhapatnam bagged an award in the 'recognition of performance' and 'innovative idea' categories for its floating solar plant at Mudasarlova reservoir.

When the Central government announced smart cities, Visakhapatnam gained a place in the list. In connection with this, various works have been grounded in the city, while some are in the process of nearing completion.

Vijayawada Municipal Corporation commissioner Prasanna Venkatesh said the 4-star ranking to Vijayawada was given based on the performance from 2019 to 2020 on town planning, bio-diversity, green building, air quality, water management and solid waste management.

The Ministry of housing and urban affairs suggested the VMC consider deploying energy monitoring information system (EMIS) to start segregating and recording major electrical load for municipal services, commercial, industrial and residential electricity consumption separately.

It also suggested that the VMC can plan improvement in technical capacities on the latest available technologies on municipal services -- buildings, streetlighting, and pumping. Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs recommended to increase utilisation of renewable energy by initiating solar programme and building solar parks as part of the existing and state and national-level policies.