PLANNING FOR A SMART CITY: A CASE OF VISAKHAPATNAM, ANDHRA PRADESH

Abstract

Cities in India have been experiencing a rapid growth and transformations to adal)t to the changing urban scenarios. Irrespective of the impacts of varied economic, social environmental and domestic political complexity, growth continues to be unhindered, witnessing the pace of activities like never before. Indian cities are acting as magnets, attracting a lot of migrants for better employmentS education and other I ivelihooci opportunities. The level of Urbanization in the country was 31% in 2011 and projected to be 50% by 2039 (JNNURM, NIUA, December 2011). There are various issues already existing in our cities like sprawl, slums, housing shortages. uncoordinated transport systems, lack of resilience, pollution, fragile drainage system etc., and many other problems have become the present clay norm. These increasing shifts of the population towards urban areas add up to the problems. Cities' infrastructure tends to crumble. as our cities were not plainec1 to house such huge populations. nor can they easily adapt to the challenges brought along with the population shift.