With the constitution of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for Visakhapatnam and Kakinada for he development of Smart Cities, the Andhra Pradesh government has take the first decisive step to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life by enabling local area development and harnessing smart technologies.

The two townships were shortlisted in stage-II of the competition under the Smart Cities mission of the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

While the SPV for Vizag has been named as the Greater Visakhapatnam Smart City Corporation Limited (GVSCCL), the other SPV is termed as Kakinada Smart City Corporation Limited (KSCCL).

The SPV will plan, appraise, approve, release funds and evaluate the Smart City Development Projects. Both the SPVs will be headed by Principal Secretary of Municipal Administration and Urban Development department.

“The SPV will be a limited company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 at the city level, in which the state and the Urban Local Body will be the promoters having 50:50 equity shares holding,” the government order stated.

The cities selected under the project will get an allocation of Rs 10 billion for each of the five years of the mission period.

The cities will be developed to have basic infrastructure such as assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.