Three cities — Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Tirupati — have been chosen for development as smart cities in Andhra Pradesh. They are among the 98 cities announced by the Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi on Thursday.
According to a UN guideline, a city must have a population of at least a million and going by that criterion there are only two cities in AP — Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Kakinada and Tirupati, each with a population of less than four lakhs, are towns and, therefore, can be categorised as smart towns.
There are two ports in the Visakhapatnam city area — Visakhapatnam main port and Gangavaram private port — and in Kakinada there are two, the old anchorage port and the modern deepwater port.
Therefore, in preparing plans for both the cities, port operations and the pollution caused by them, as also traffic issues, would have to be considered. Handling of dirty cargo such as coal has to be minimised at the ports and, if it is inevitable, modern mechanised handling systems would have to be installed. Already, there is a problem at Vizag and the Vizag port authorities are taking steps to minimise the pollution. However, at Kakinada, cargo handling has to be modernised.
After the devastation wrought by cyclone Hudhud, the authorities have taken steps to make Vizag a smart city. A plan has been drawn up for installing underground cables for power supply and also for covering the entire city with underground drainage. LED street lights have been installed and plans are being drawn up to make the city smart in other respects.
Underground drainage and underground cables for power supply are the major works to be undertaken at Kakinada, apart from port-related issues. Kakinada has also become a major hub for oil and gas exploration in the Krishna-Godavari basin. Reliance, GSPC, ONGC, Cairn Energy and several other oil companies are operating off the Kakinada coast.
Temple town: Tirupati is, of course, different from the other two, as it is basically a temple town and so far the development of the town has been due to the blessings of the world famous Sri Venkateswara (also known as Balaji) temple atop the Tirumala hills. He draws lakhs of devotees to his shrine and on them depends the prosperity of the town.
However, in future, Goddess Saraswati, the presiding deity for education, may also spur the growth of the town, as the IIT, the IISER and other major educational institutions are coming up in the vicinity of the town in Chittoor district. Therefore, a specific plan has to be drawn up for the temple town.