Smart City Initiatives Entangled in Political Priorities: Case-Based Analysis on Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Visakhapatnam, often referred to as Vizag, is a port city located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a major industrial and commercial hub known for its natural beauty, beaches, and historical significance. This city with a GDP of $43.5 billion and the ninth richest city in India has been identified as one of the potential Indian smart cities in 2015. The Indian government’s Smart Cities Mission is a program for urban renewal and retrofitting that aims to transform a limited number of cities throughout the nation into smart cities by implementing various infrastructure and technical upgrades. This chapter uses a case-based approach and describes Visakhapatnam’s experience since being selected and declared as a smart city in the first round of the Smart Cities Mission, which was announced in January 2016 to present. The ruling political party’s state capital shift to Visakhapatnam proposals evoked a massive political controversy. This study provides a timeline of growth in Visakhapatnam smart city construction hampered by intergovernmental coordination, political priorities and budget allocation, local politics and stakeholder engagement, election cycles, and partisan politics. All potential secondary information including smart city proposals, government website data on smart city missions, and current news articles were gathered, and secondary sources were employed to examine the data. This chapter critically examines the detailed real-time implications and political environmental challenges faced by the city of Visakhapatnam on the threshold of a smart city mission.