Vizag municipal body urged to develop all-abilities park

Visakhapatnam: In a unique way to engage the participants, Director of Smart Cities Mission, Rahul Kapoor, gave a presentation on modern smart cities incorporating immortal dialogues from the 1975 Bollywood cult film, Sholay, on the second day of the 3rd Apex Conference of Smart Cities here on Saturday.

The catchy lines of the presentation were made based on popular dialogues such as-‘Arre O' Samba, Kitne Aadmi The?’, ‘Bhag Dhanno Bagh’, ‘Ab Tera Kya Hoga Re?’.

The Mission Director also said that the Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Durga Shanker Mishra urged the CEOs of all smart cities to develop at least one all-abilities park in their respective cities, including Visakhapatnam.

Charulata Somal, Managing Director, Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development & Finance Corporation spoke about the implementation of the Mission in seven smart cities of Karnataka. She explained about exclusive review and implementation committee, review mechanism, online project monitoring tools and social integration.

R Murugan, DGM, Programme Management Unit, Smart City Mission, Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation, said that a total of 414 projects were sanctioned at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore in all the 11 smart cities of the State. Officials from Gujarat also explained the journey of the Smart City Mission in the State.

Summing up, GVMC Commissioner G Srijana said that such conferences will help in exchanging knowledge and sharing ideas among officials of various smart cities.

“It was a privilege for GVMC to host the conference and it was a learning experience for me and my team. Building inclusive, sustainable and resilient cities are the major theme of the Smart Cities Mission,” said Srijana.