Andhra Pradesh expects five to seven urban areas to be transformed as smart cities

VISAKHAPATNAM: If erstwhile Andhra Pradesh had just the urban conglomerates of Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam to boast of, residuary AP actually stands a fair chance of seeing nearly five to seven of its urban areas transform into cities that too ‘smart’ ones.
“Because of bifurcation, AP will have a better chance of developing many urban areas under the NDA government’s smart city project.We expect nearly five to seven urban areas to be selected by the Centre under the scheme for which it has announced Rs 7,060 crore,” AP Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation (APUFIDC) managing director, Y Madhusudhan Reddy, told TOI.
The Rs 7,060 crore fund for developing 100 smart cities in India will be primarily used only for preparatory works such as chalking out an action plan and detailed project report. Around Rs 350-400 crore will have to be invested separately in developing each smart city, revealed an expert in the field of DPR preparation who works with the department of municipal administration and urban development.
Reddy explained that the prime objective of the smart city project is to enhance the quality of urban life through an integrated approach to urban planning and execution. Some of the key parameters of the scheme include elements such as smart transport, smart economy, streamlined power supply and extensive usage of information technology.
The AP government is trying hard to derive maximum mileage out of the NDA government’s smart city project and has already identified 15 urban areas in the state that can be developed as smart cities. While two of the urban areas each are from East Godavari and Chittoor districts, one urban civic body each has been picked up from the remaining 11 districts of AP.
Even AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is scheduled to hold a brain storming session with the collectors of all 13 districts at Vijayawada on August 7 to discuss the seven missions, including the urban mission that deals with the `smart city’ concept.
A similar session on the smart city concept was held in Delhi last month with Union ministry of urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation discussing the concept threadbare.