Visakhapatnam To Adopt Kolkata's Vertical Housing Model

The concept of vertical buildings is witnessing great demand on the account of growing urbanisation. Well-developed tall buildings utilise smaller surface area for heating or cooling.  Having the advantage of a good height, these buildings are capable of harvesting wind and solar energy.

Considering the benefits of vertical housing model, officials from Visakhapatnam will visit Kolkata to study the vertical housing mechanism. The same type of building structures will be reproduced in order to meet the housing needs of employees of private firms in the coastal city of Andhra Pradesh.

Visakhapatnam district collector Pravin Kumar told an English daily, "We will visit Kolkata in the first week of February to study a similar project in the metro city where it has produced successful results."

Kolkata's vertical housing towers, within the range of 8 floors to 20 floors, are a great success. The houses in the 'City of Joy' are more affordable and the cost of social transport is quite low. The vertical structures come to rescue if the value of the land is abysmally high.

Under different schemes such as NTR Housing and Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the Andhra Pradesh government provides housing to the population below the poverty line and to the unorganised sector.

Now, the government is coming up with private developers creating homes for the working population in private companies. These will be made available at affordable prices.

In the first phase, the state government has planned to develop one lakh houses. This includes 65,000 houses sprawling over an area of 35,000 spread over 400 acres at Anandapuram towards Srikakulam and 710 acres at Achyuthapuram towards Rajahmundry in the city.

For this important project, the government wants to adopt Kolkata's vertical housing model.