The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) have secured a 4-star rating in the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0 awarded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

The award was presented at a three-day event, Smart Cities, Smart Urbanisation, organised by MoHUA that started in Surat on April 18. The event was to emphasise significant initiatives being executed in 100 Smart Cities.

R Bhagyalakshmi Vijayawada Mayor, Swapnil Dinakar Pundakar Commissioner, along with other officials, received the award. Though Vijayawada was not a part of the Smart Cities Mission, it was given the rating considering the various smart initiatives taken such as Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP), rolling out of 250 Compressed natural gas (CNG) auto rickshaws for day-to-day garbage collection.

Vijayawada also installed solar panels on existing government and school buildings and implemented actions mentioned in the Water Resource Management Plan under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2.0 (AMRUT) for increasing the green belt by removing encroachments along the Krishna bank, canals, and railway lines. VMC had transformed conventional street lights into LED lights and reduced power consumption by 50%. The city was the first to collect garbage from the people's doorstep by using CNG vehicles.

G Lakshmisha Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Commissioner received the award for solar projects implementation. During the conference, a PowerPoint presentation on the solar projects in the Port City was presented and work details being undertaken as part of the Smart City project were showcased.

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