Introduction :

Visakhapatnam is one of the earliest municipalities along with Nellore, Kurnool, Vizayanagaram and Bhimilipatam. Voluntary Municipal Association was set up in Visakhapatnam in the year 1858 under All India Act. XXVI of 1850. With the advent of Town Improvement Act of Madras (Act. 10 of 1865). Substantial changes were occurred and the Voluntary Municipal Association had become a Municipality having a commission consisting of Officials and nominated mercantile community. Subsequently vide Madras District Municipalities Act 1884 the Commission was designated as Council. The Constitutionals and Administrative set up of the Vizag Municipality set forth by the Madras District Municipalities Act. 1920 and the Amendment Act 1933 remained unchanged without any significant changes until 1965 when the Andhra Pradesh Legislature passed the Andhra Pradesh Municipalities Act 1965. Since then the Vizag Municipality has grown in its Municipal limits due to incorporation of new areas and thus the need for conversion to Municipal Corporation occurred in the year 1979. In the year 1951 the population of the city was 1.08 lakhs covering an area of 20.23 Sq.Km and in the year 1971 the population rose to 3.52 lakhs covering an area of 76.32 Sq.Km. But over next two decades the population has further increased to 7.5 lakhs (1991) and the area of Corporation in also increased to 111.6 Sq.Km. A moderate estimate of the Corporations total population would be around 10.5 lakhs by 2000. However, the officials of Corporation have estimated it to be 13.0 lakhs due to rapid migration.

The Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation has been performing a variety of functions ever since it was established as a Voluntary Municipal Association as early as 1858. The number and extent of functions have been on steady increase with the passage of time under different municipal laws. The municipal authority was started in the beginning with a very few functions namely streetlighting, markets, drainage and water supply. Now, after 142 years the number has gone up extensively covering a vast area of 111.60 squarekms in which 1.2 million people live.

Public Works :

Public Works is the earliest function of the Corporation. At present, it consists of four section viz roads, drainage, water works and lighting.

One of the primary functions of the Corporation is public Health. The public health section of Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation has been dealing with medical relief, preventive medicine, sanitation and conservancy,maternity and child welfare, control of food adulteration and some other function under public health regulations.