VISAKHAPATNAM: Visakhapatnam walked away with national innovative idea award for its 2 mw floating solar farm in Mudasarlova reservoir at the two-day third conference of Smart Cities, which began here on Friday.
Besides, Vizag and Amaravati won awards in recognition of their performance under the Smart City initiative. While Amaravati received second prize among round III cities, Visakhapatnam stood first among round I cities.
The awards were presented by secretary of Union Housing and Urban Affairs Durga Shanker Mishra. Later, Mishra accompanied by GVMC officials visited the smart city initiatives in Vizag.
He visited the all-abilities park on the Beach Road, digital class rooms at GVMC primary schools, civic operations centre at GVMC office, heritage buildings including town hall and old municipal office and floating solar farm in Mudasarlova reservoir.
Mishra appreciated the GVMC for its smart initiatives. The floating solar power farm was built in 20 acres of the reservoir, one of the oldest man-made water bodies, at a cost of Rs 11.34 crore.
The works were executed by DES Engineers of Hyderabad under the supervision of AECOM, consultants for the Smart City projects. The works for the plant began in May 2018 and was inaugurated in August 2018. Solar panels have been installed on bases that floats on water. The bases have bed-like structure at the bottom so that when the water dries up, the panels don’t get damaged.