VISAKHAPATNAM: If everything goes well, Visakhapatnam will have its own Urban Observatory to deal with the civic issues and monitor its urban dynamics at the local level.
A workshop on ‘Visakhapatnam Urban Observatory’, conducted by the ‘UK-India Joint Network on Sustainable Cities’, along with the GVMC and VUDA officials, focused on functioning of urban observatories, its advantages and feasibility of having it in Vizag.
During the inaugural address, VUDA vice-chairman T Baburao Naidu said that the Urban Observatory will help in various policy- making decisions, urban planning and others. “The Urban Observatory comprising key stakeholders of the city will help disseminate data on a meaningful set of indicators. A steering committee will go into its feasibility.
With the observatory, gaps, priorities and policies can be made, using the database,” Naidu said.
Visakhapatnam Port Trust chairman MT Krishna Babu said that data analytics would change the future course of development of cities in the next few decades. Krishna Babu remembered how they had created awareness among public about the Smart City challenge through technology.
He also asked the stakeholders to use the present data gathered during the Smart City project, wherein they had asked people about their priorities. He was also hopeful that the universities and educational institutions to come forward for data gathering, if required.
The proposals made at the workshop include setting up of an urban observatory in Visakhapatnam and forming a steering committee. The National Institute of Urban Affairs has been engaged with stakeholders for establishing the observatories to address the complex entanglement of information in Mumbai and New Delhi.
Principal Investigator, Joint UK-India Network, Michele Clarke, chief project manager, National Institute of Urban Affairs, Anand lyer and others took part in the workshop.