Visakhapatnam: Building upon the US-India Business Council’s successful Smart Cities Conclave in November, USIBC on Friday hosted a Smart Cities Roundtable for Visakhapatnam with senior representatives from the Ministry of Urban Development and the Andhra Pradesh government.

Diane Farrell, acting-President of USIBC led representatives from 25 major US companies, including 3M, AECOM, Applied Materials, CH2MHill, Cisco, Dow, GE, Hospira, IBM, Microsoft, and United Technologies Corporation, in detailed discussions with the Centre and State government officials to create a roadmap and advance the goal of developing Visakhapatnam into a Smart City as articulated in the joint statement between President Obama and Prime Minister Modi in September.

Representing the Union Ministry of Urban Development was Joint Secretary in-charge of Vishakapatnam, Praveen Prakash, who was joined by A Giridhar, Principal Secretary for Urban Development for the AP government; Vice-Chairman of Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority; Commissioner, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation and the District Collector of Visakhapatnam.

Complimenting USIBC for its hands-on approach, Prakash said, “We are delighted to see the progress made here today which reaffirmed the commitment of the government and U.S. industry towards building Visakhapatnam as a model for India’s 100 smart cities plan.”

Smart Cities are the integration of information technology, telecommunications, urban planning, smart infrastructure and operations in an environment geared to maximize the quality of life for a city's population. Addressing the delegates, Collector N Yuva Raj gave a detail power point presentation of the Port City, ENC-HQ Navy, Universities, industries and hospitals in the city and mentioned that they were two cyclone occurs in the city during the years 1983 and 1996 and also about the recent Hudhud cyclone.

He suggested certain concepts for development of the city aiming at development by Robust Warning System (IMC and CWC), Communication structures, Power/ Electricity through spun poles and underground cabling and dynamic inventory of the resources.

Source: DC