VIJAYAWADA:A beginning has been made to make a part of Vijayawada as a smart city on a pilot basis. A team of CISCO representatives made a survey of some parts of the city from Chief Minister’s camp office on the premises of Irrigation complex. The team went round the city on Tuesday, mainly Mahatma Gandhi Road, Benz Circle, Siddhartha Academy area and decided that the area may be developed into a smart city on a pilot basis.
After the survey of the area, the team which was led by Municipal Commissioner G Veerapandian held talks with District Collector Babu A who said that he wanted to see the pilot project turn the portion of the city into another Barcelona. “Whenever I see Barcelona city on the internet, I get very much excited,” the collector told the delegation.
The aspects that would be covered under smart city would mainly be traffic management, LED lighting, WIFI connectivity, Smart House Numbers, Command Control Room and so on. The area chosen for the pilot project will have Wifi connectivity provided by BSNL and Reliance. The collector asked the two companies to furnish him with information on the connectivity aspect. The collector wanted comprehensive reports on 40 aspects of smart city which would be developed in five phases.
Municipal Commissioner G Veerapandian said that the survey would be taken up in four wards near Mahatma Gandhi Road. In this area, there were 21 primary and high schools, 27 colleges, three malls and several hospitals and houses. In this area a total of 13,000 families were living. An exclusive office would be opened at the VMC for conducting the survey. CISCO officer K Parthasarathy said the company had the experience of giving guidance in transforming existing cities into smart cities in several countries.
In all the countries, the aspects of the projects they worked on, were limited in nature. But the Vijayawada project has so many aspects which had taken him by surprise, Parthasarathy said. “We will take this as a challenge,” he said.