The Municipality of Vijayawada (Bezawada) was constituted on 1st APR, 1888 and was upgraded as a selection grade municipality in the year 1960. The municipality was upgraded to a corporation in 1981. With the merger of Gunadala, Patamata and Bhavanipuram village panchayats and two villages payakapuram and Kundavari kandrika in the corporation in 1985. The total area of the corporation is 58 sq.kms.

The city is divided into 59 political wards. An elected body headed by the Mayor performs the Administration of the Corporation. The Commissioner acts as the executive head, and oversees the day to day functioning of the local body. The staff strength of the corporation is just over 5000.

Governance

Online Tax Collection through Eseva Centres
Online Collection of various taxes through e-seva centres has brought immense benefit both to the corporation and to the citizens. Looking at the service from the citizens perspective, the Government of Andhra Pradesh set up 'e-seva', a citizen service center using state of the art technologies. A number of e-seva centres are functioning at various points in Vijayawada, these act as bill collection centres for the city administration and other allied functions.

City Civic Center
Internet penetration in a developing country like ours is still not complete and it has been priority of VMC to see that benefits of VOICE (Versatile Online Information for Citizen Empowerment) are extended to the common citizen who are mostly computer illiterates. The corporation has developed a model computerized 'City Civic Center' with all amenities in the corporation premises to act as 'One Stop Civic Shop' for availing various civic services in the Municipal Corporation premises. Issuing of Birth & Death Certificates, Registration of Building Plan and Water Tap Applications etc are carried out here.

Physical Infrastructure

Water Supply
In supply of protected drinking water, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is fore runner in Andhra Pradesh State. Every day 39 MGD of protected water is supplied to the city residents. There are 59 water reservoirs with a storage capacity of 620.50 lakh gallons. Approximately 150 ltr. per head/day is supplied

Length of water mains	960 kms
No. of House Service Connections	83,441
No. of Public Stand Posts	2,892
No. of Power Bores	56
No. of Boosters	27
No. of Hand Bores	2421

Roads
Nearly 1200 k.m. of Internal roads are extended and widened.

Under Ground Drainage
In Vijayawada Under Ground Drainage was constructed in 1967-68 and 35% of the area was covered under this project. Corporation has undertaken the expansion of the Under Ground Drainage for the whole city with JNNURM funds of Rs. 271.48 Cr. At present, 32,837 UGD connections are given in the City.

Solid Waste Management
The City is divided into 34 Sanitary Divisions and about 2500 staff, of which 50% are from 74 DWCUA groups, have taken up the task of cleaning the roads every day. The total waste generated is around 550 M.T. and this is transported to Excel Plant, Sri Ram Energy Systems Plant and Bio Methanization plant for recycling into manure and power generation. Vijayawada is the only city in India to completely use the waste generated for these purposes.

Social Infrastructure

Health
Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is serving 22 urban health centers, 4 Maternity hospitals, 12 Ayurvedic, 2 Unani Centres catering different systems of medicine

Education
The corporation runs a number of schools,

High Schools	28( Including 3 Urdu H.S., 2 Schools both E.M.&T.M.)
Upper Primary Schools	2 (1 Urdu Medium and 1 Telugu Medium)
Elementary Schools	65+10= 75 (10 Urdu Media )( 5 E.M.Including E.M)
Students	28,450
Teachers	622

The Corporation provides Mid-day meals to students of 150 schools (Both Corporation and Aided Schools). Approximately 22,450 students benefit from this scheme

Parks & Open Spaces
Vijayawada Municipal Corporation takes care of 4 city level parks and 45 fenced & 35 unfenced open spaces. It regularly takes up avenue tree plantation projects and greenery development programmes. 50 Neighbourhood parks developed by the corporation are maintained by park committees specially formed for this scheme.

Sports Facilities

* Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium
* Three Indoor Stadiums
* Three Swimming Pools and a number of Gymnasiums


Slum Rehabilitation and Poverty Alleviation

Vijayawada with an estimated poor population of 2.27 lakhs has about 105 slums. The slums are mostly spread over the banks of river Krishna and its canals. Infrastructure facilities like Water Supply, Sewerage, Raods & Drains are taken up with a cost of Rs. 194.10 Cr & 28,152 Nos. dwelling units at a cost of Rs. 549.22 Cr. under JNNURM. 2016 Nos of housing units are completed.

Accolades and Awards

* Won National Urban Water Award for the year 2009
* CRISIL has bestowed Best Practices Award for the "Siti e-Governance" Project
* CSI Nihilent runner-up award was conferred by Ministry of Information and Technology
* Finalist in Stockholm Challenge Award
* First Corporation in the State to Receive ISO 9001 Certification for Quality Management System