Visakhapatnam: Though several developmental projects have been taken up in the city under smart city projects, a majority of them are concentrated within an area that covers less than 1 per cent of the total city limits. Moreover, the projects seem to be confined to an area that barely has about 4 per cent of the city population residing there.

Of the 42 projects under way, only 11 are pan-city projects or those covering the entire city. The remaining 31 works are targeted for the development of designated area which is called Area Based Development (ABD).

The ABD area is around 6 sq.km while the total area of the city under Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) limits is almost 625 sq. km.

This apart, only 80,000 people reside in those areas where the projects have been started under the scheme which is just 4 per cent of the 20 lakh projected population of the city.

The pan-city projects are related to e-governance, disaster management system, beach protection and redevelopment project, smart traffic signalling, street lighting and floating and canal top power plants.

Some of the projects to be taken up for the ABD are street redesigning, smart poles, smart bins, GPS based bus stops cluster, public bike and cycle sharing, 24*7 drinking water facility, E-rickshaw, vending kiosks and development and establishment of parks.

The ABD-centric projects have been getting a huge chunk of the funding leading to apprehensions in the minds of some of the residents of imbalanced and unequal development of the city. This may result in anxiety and concern in the minds of some.

Supporters of the projects, however, point out that according to the smart city concept, the ABD areas will catalyse future scalability to the entire city.

All the projects are to be taken up at an estimated budget of Rs 1887.91 cr. Of the 42 projects, 12 projects (Rs 195.36cr) are under implementation, 11 worth Rs 502.06 cr at RFP stage and eight (Rs 489 crore) are in design or RFP preparation state. A large chunk of the development fund would flow to the ABD area only.