Vizag identified as Niti Aayog pilot city

VISAKHAPATNAM: Vizag has been identified as one of the pilot cities of Niti Aayog, said Niti Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam.

The Niti Aayog CEO chaired a meeting with GVMC, VMRDA, and industries department at the VMRDA office on Tuesday.

Speaking on this occasion, Subrahmanyam said that Vizag is one of the fastest growing cities in the country.

GVMC commissioner CM Saikanth Varma gave a powerpoint presentation on the developmental plans of the city.

So far, Mumbai, Surat and Vishakhapatnam have been identified for the pilot phase of Niti Aayog.

The Niti Aayog CEO said that the city with its natural resources and rail, port and air connectivity would soon emerge as a developed city.

Recognising the importance of leveraging urbanization for economic growth and in line with NITI Aayog's mandate of fostering cooperative federalism, an initiative focused on developing city-regions as growth hubs has been conceived.

This initiative is a close collaboration of NITI Aayog with the state governments and renowned subject experts.

It endeavours to forge a robust economic growth strategy for city-regions across India and prepare a roadmap for achieving the same.

NITI Aayog would also constitute a national advisory committee of renowned experts under this initiative.

In the initial stage, four city-regions will be taken up on a pilot basis to develop a template for devising an economic strategy.

Later, it would be scaled up to 16 more cities.

In addition to these, the economic strategy template will act as the model strategy for other city-regions across the country for achieving desired economic targets.

Across each city region, the Project aims to deliver a roadmap for developing economic growth strategy.

A series of activities will be undertaken, including a comprehensive baseline assessment of the city region's economy, for this.