Visakhapatnam : A Clean Industrial Hub -207

Aakash Mangla, G. Shankar Gopi, Siddhartha Pandey, Vipul Vinzuda and Praveen Nahar

Visakhapatnam (popularly known as Vizag) is a port city and an industrial centre in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Nestled between the Eastern Ghats and the coast of the Bay of Bengal, it is a natural hub for tourism, defence, shipping, trade, and various industries. These industries also attract many migrants from neighbouring states searching for employment opportunities. Such diverse city conditions pose unique challenges to people living and working in the city. That is why we wanted to carefully study such a diverse city from a system design perspective to solve immediate challenges and make it resilient to future problems.

Our team started with secondary research, including a detailed study of the city’s lifestyle, established industries, ports, tourism sector, and transportation system. With the help of secondary research, we identified issues specifically related to mobility and industries. These served as the foundation for our primary research, which was carried out via field visits, surveys, conversation starters, and personal and group interviews. We gathered all the information — from both secondary and primary research — and used thematic analysis to conduct a qualitative study. This helped us identify significant patterns and emerging themes affecting the city and its residents.

The six themes we derived were: upcoming tier-1 city, rise in electric vehicles, untapped tourism sector, disconnected outskirts, machines replacing human jobs, and unmet potential of public mobility. These themes helped us formulate focused briefs aimed at enhancing the public transportation experience and offering affordable mobility solutions to people working in the industries. Our systemic investigation led us to the realization that these initiatives may improve people’s lives while thriving the city as a clean industrial hub.