VIJAYAWADA: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Vijayawada, in collaboration with the MA&UD Department, hosted a one-day conference on ‘Urban Andhra 2030 – Designing Future -Ready, Sustainable and Resilient Cities.’
MA&UD Principal Secretary, S Suresh Kumar, outlined the State’s vision of building livable, sustainable, and investment-friendly cities. He highlighted reforms like reducing minimum layout road width from 12 to 9 metres, revising thresholds from 18 to 24 metres, rationalising setbacks, and enabling parking and skywalks.
He detailed initiatives, including GIS-based master plans for all 123 ULBs, a Digital Property Registry, online TDR trading, Puramitra PGRS, LED streetlight conversion, universal water supply, and climate-resilient planning.
Karthik Kollabothula, APCRDA Additional Commissioner presented Amaravati’s blueprint as a 217 sq. km capital city within 8,352 sq. km region, designed for 3.5 million residents and 1.5 million jobs by 2050. He emphasised blue-green infrastructure, integrated mobility, underground utilities, flood mitigation, non-motorised transport, and the ‘5-10-15 principle’ ensuring emergency services within 5 minutes, recreation within 10, and workplaces within 15.
CII AP Chairman S Narendra Kumar called urbanisation an opportunity, citing models like Chandigarh, Indore, and Singapore, and reaffirmed CII’s commitment to partner with the government. Former CMD HUDCO and Past National Chairman, CII IGBC, V Suresh, stressed sustainability and resilience as twin pillars of urban growth. He pointed to Vizag, Amaravati, and Tirupati as emerging economic hubs.
