municipalika 2014 in gandhinagar gets outstanding … associate directors nitin telang r mahesh...

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Municipalika 2014 in Gandhinagar gets outstanding response, sets action agenda for Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and Housing for All

In his Inaugural Address, M Venkaiah Naidu referred to the significant initiatives taken by the Govern-

ment of India, Swachh Bharat Mission for providing 100% sanitation, clean and hygienic cities by 2019. He gave a clarion call for Jan Andolan for making it a peo-ple’s movement for participative initiatives towards total sanitation. Considering the major challenges in housing in cities as well as provision of shelter for slum-dwell-ers, Naidu outlined the provisions for housing for all by 2022, through the 30 million urban homes with pre-dominant thrust on weaker sections and low-income group. He called for optimisation of all resources - land, finance, building materials and technologies - for the speedy construction of affordable homes. Consider-ing the phenomenal thrust on economic development, he highlighted the lead being given by Government of India, for the development of 100 smart cities in the country, in order to modernise and make them inter-nationally competitive. He also referred to the efforts being done for upgrading and retrofitting the existing facilities as well as to provide new integrated smart and green cities. In this context, the historical relevance of many old cities and the need to have a strong conserva-tion of heritage identities of cities was emphasised. He

exhorted the need for major capacity building efforts for changing the mindscape of governance mechanism for ensuring timely and efficient services to the citizens. The role of e-governance and IT applications comes into sharp focus, he stressed.

In her Keynote Address, Anandiben Patel referred to the many proactive steps taken by the Government of Gujarat for overcoming the challenges faced by urbanisation. She highlighted the efforts for launching Mahatma Gandhi Swachhta Mission to make zero waste cities. The efforts for total sanitation under Nirmal Guja-rat, was also indicated. The Chief Minister shared the progress under Mukhyamantri Gruh Yojna to provide affordable housing for all with all social amenities. She also referred with satisfaction decision and efforts for hosting Municipalika + CAPEx 2014 as it provided a unique platform for sharing best practices in all sec-tors in housing and urban development.

Dr Joan Clos, Executive Director, UN-Habitat, in his opening statement referred to the two flagship initia-tives – the World Urban Campaign & I’m a City Changer, dedicated to improve the urban future. He laid special stress on dealing with the problems of slum settlements, improving the living conditions of slum-dwellers and

providing them with the regulatory framework for cit-izen’s participation, incorporating design issues in the built environment, and integrating urban poverty alle-viation issues with employment generation.

Highlighting the role of the private sector in the cre-ation of the infrastructure development, Zubin Irani, President of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, indi-cated that this would cover latest technological advance-ments for buildings, infrastructure, financial resources, operations and maintenance. He conveyed the great sense of anticipation and excitement in the industry on the Government’s new initiatives, and assured full sup-port of the private sector, matching measure-for-mea-sure the government’s initiatives, especially in urban infrastructure development.

Luminaries present on the dais included Shankarbhai Chaudhari, Minister of State for Urban Housing, Government of Gujarat; G R Aloria, Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development and Urban Housing Department, Government of Gujarat; Mona Khandhar, Secretary, Housing and Nirmal Gujarat; Sanjiv Agarwal, Founder Trustee, Good Governance India Foundation & Editor-Publisher of Urban News Digest, and V Suresh, Advisor & Convenor, Municipalika.

With the demographic boom in cities in India showing strong and irreversible trends in urbanisation, cities are now contributing to over 65% of the country’s GDP of India, and are playing a major part in the economic development. However, cities are all bursting at the seams, with major deficiencies in urban infrastructure, citizen’s services, as well as governance mechanism. Against this backdrop, Municipalika 2014, the 12th International Conference & Exhibition on Emerging Trends in Sustainable Habitat & Integrated Cities was inaugurated by M Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India, and presided over by Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister of Gujarat, the Host State, in the presence of Dr Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN Habitat, and a galaxy of dignitaries, thought leaders, experts and urban stakeholders. Urban News Digest brings a live report.

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Associate DirectorsNitin TelangR MaheshRajarshi DeRaj Kapoor SinghTarique Ebrahim

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Joint Managing Director Rajiv Agarwal

Executive DirectorHarsh Agarwal

Chief Technology Officer Rudradeb Mitra

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Editorial

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Content WriterSrimati MitraGopanjali Roy

Municipalika 2014 was organised with the active support of Government of India, Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alle-viation, Host State Government of Gujarat, and under the patronage of UN-Habitat, as well as other state, national and international urban stakeholder institutions.

Municipalika 2014 was bigger in scope and partic-ipation than earlier years. Along with the two leading Government of India Ministries, state governments like Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Tamil Nadu and of course Host State Guja-rat were represented in a big way, along with partici-pation from 15 other states. Canada and Switzerland were the Partner Countries offering sustainable urban infrastructure development solutions. United Tech-nologies continued its support in 2014 as an Associate Partner for Municipalika, and for the Urban Innova-tion Challenge competition. Rolta India, Tata Motors and Mahindra were the Featured Exhibitors, along with 100 others, with products, services and solutions for smart, safe, healthy, green, and inclusive cities and sustainable built environment. Visitors had free entry

into the exhibition on all three days.Over 1,200 delegates from 250+ cities of India and

abroad, comprising Ministers, Secretaries to State Governments, Mayors, Municipal Commissioners, City Managers, Town Planners, Architects, Engi-neers, Urban Transport Specialists, E-Governance Experts, Urban Utility Managers, Private Sector and Citizens Groups participated in Municipalika.

Municipalika Conference Segment had 10 power-packed sessions spread over three days.

DAY 1CS 01: Progressive and Working Cities

• Reforms and Financial Management• New Urban Mission and Best Practices• Land-use Planning• Launch of 100 New Cities

CS 02: Safe and Resilient Cities • Disaster Mitigation and Management• Fire Safety and Protection• Anti-terror capabilities, Homeland Security,

• Gender-sensitive and child-friendly cities• Policing and Community based Security

Support Systems• Flood Relief

CS 03: Vibrant Cities (Heritage Issues)• Conservation of Heritage Zones• Linking Heritage Buildings and Precincts as

City Tourism• Heritage Walk• Capacity Buildings for Heritage Conservation

in Cities

The Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is happy to extend full support to Municipalika 2014, as it has been doing since the inception of the event in 2003. Improving urban governance and urban local bodies is key to the success of the initiatives taken up by the government. I am sure that the participants will benefit from the presentations in the Conference and Exhibition by national and international experts, end-users and technology providers.

M Venkaiah naiduMinister for Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation

Government of India

I am pleased to see people from various parts of India and various corners of the world here. It is also pleasing that domain experts from various aspects of urban development would share their knowledge in this forum. I was very impressed to see the wide range of issues that would be discussed during the three day event.

anandiben PatelChief Minister

Government of Gujarat


DAY 2CS 04: Healthy Cities (Integrated Water Management)

• Water Supply, Treatment and Distribution• 24×7 Water Supply• Metering• Reduction of T&D losses• Water Conservation• Rainwater Harvesting, Aquifer Recharging• Sanitation for All by 2019• Waste Water Treatment options• Waste Water Recycling and Reuse• Cleaning of Rivers & Water Bodies

CS 05: Healthy Cities (Integrated Solid Waste Management)• Collection, Segregation and Transport of

Solid Waste• Recycling – esp Building Materials, Plastics

and E-waste• Waste-to-Energy• Hygienic and Safe Sanitary Landfills• Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan 2019 / Mahatma

Gandhi Swachhta Mission

CS 06: Green Cities Low Carbon, Energy-Efficient, Sustainable Built Environment and Communities

• Sustainable Development options• Passive Designs for Energy Efficiency• Active Design and Application for Energy

Efficiency,• Use of Renewable Energy• Solar Cities

CS 07: Connected Cities Sustainable Urban Transportation, Traffic Management & Networked Cities

• Paradigm Shift in Urban Mobility with Effective Public Transportation

• Transit Oriented Development

• MRT, BRT, LRT• Non-Motorised options, Walkability• Transport and Traffic Infrastructure• Parking

DAY 3CS 08: Inclusive & Humane Cities

• Housing for all by 2022• Slum-less Cities• Optimisation of Resources for Land, Building

Materials and Technology, Finance• Delivery System through Partnership options• Financing options - Mortgage & Project

Financing• PPP & Non-government Initiatives• Land Markets and Property Rights

CS 09 : Smart Cities • Next Level E-Governance Solutions for City

Level Services

• Geo-Spatial Technologies• GIS-GPS Applications• Retro Fitting

CS 10: Integrated Cities and New Vision• Integrated, Self-Contained Cities• New Town Development, Twin Cities, Satellite

CitiesMunicipalika 2014 was organised along with

CAPEx, the trade show focused on Construction, Architecture, Planning and Engineering to deliber-ate on sustainable built environment and good urban governance. At Municipalika 2014, the national and international experts and though leaders had gath-ered to answer how do we plan, design, build and maintain sustainable built environment?

CAPEx had 4 Technical Sessions.

DAY 1TS 01 – Innovative Building Materials and Technologies for Building and Infrastructure Applications

• Walling & Roofing options• Innovative use of Industrial Waste like

fly ash• Structural systems including composite

materials• Doors, Windows, Shutters & Fenestration

options• Water Proofing and Damp Proofing options• Flooring and External Hardscapes• Build Materials and Products’ Super Market

/ Malls/ Retail outlets – a la Home Stores

Municipalika is an excellent gathering in India where a lot of mayors have gathered here and it is a good opportunity to take advantage of the new energy in the process of urbanisation and to support and empower the local authorities of India. The exhibition is very interesting because there are a lot of innovative experiences and technologies, and it is also a very good exhibition that compliments Municipalika very well.

Dr joan ClosExecutive Director

UN-Habitat


TS 02 – Techno-legal regime for acceptance of new products and approval systems including Standards, Testing & Certification

• Strengthening Testing and Validation Facilities for Quality Assurance

DAY 2TS 03 – Green Building Technologies and Products

• Thermal Efficient products for Walling, Roofing

• Energy-Efficient Fenestrations• Energy-saving Star Products for Building

Services• Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Products• Environment Friendly and Functional Paints

and Surface Treatments for various situations• Building Automation & Smart Buildings

TS 04 – Modern Construction Systems, Practices and Technologies

• Fast Track Construction Solutions• Prefabricated and Precast Construction in

Building and Infrastructure• Innovative Construction Practices using Mod-

ern Form works and Reducing Slab Cycle• Composite Steel – Concrete Construction• Modern Developments in High Strength Con-

crete Construction• Underground Buried Utilities and infra-

structure and NO DIG and Tunnel Boring Technologies

• Cost Effective Housing and Building Technologies

• Water Saving and Conservation Products, Low-flow Fittings, Fixtures and Equipments

Three Vision Addresses on the vision of Future Cities and the nature of innovative changes needed for futuris-tic needs of growing cities were delivered by Dr Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat; Mr Bruce Lazenby, President & CEO of Invest Ottawa, and Mr Arun Bhatia, Director of UTC Carrier India.

As part of participative city development, management and governance, a special Open House interactive session with Mayors, Municipal Commissioners, City Managers, members of Resident Welfare Associations, Commu-nity-based organisations, NGOs, urban planning, archi-tecture students and civil society members was organised on Day 2, to provide an interactive platform for exchanges between those who govern and those who are governed. The idea was to help frame a larger participative process for Clean India, which was the theme of the session.

Last year, Municipalika 2013 saw the launch of the Urban Innovation Challenge, a design ideas compe-tition for professionals and students of architecture, urban planning and engineering. This year the Urban Innovation Challenge generated an even more enthu-siastic response among students and professionals. 112 institutions from across India registered for the event. 207 teams, comprising 365 individual mem-bers submitted entries for the competition, and 15 winners were selected on the themes of ‘Smart Cities and Green Buildings’. The winning entries were given GGIF-Municipalika Urban Innovation Awards 2014.

A special issue of Urban News Digest, the Offi-cial Publication of Municipalika, was released on the occasion.

Also released was a special IGBC publication, ‘Model Building Bye-laws for Sustainable Develop-ment of Built Environment in Cities’ – a guiding doc-ument for revamping building bye-laws, Development control Rules and Planning Standards of Urban Local Bodies / Planning Authorities.

The Founder Trustee of Good Governance India Foun-dation, and the Editor and Publisher of Urban News Digest, Sanjiv Agarwal stressed upon the need for free and fair land markets to usher in sustainable urban develop-ment. A book authored by him titled ‘The Indian Feder-alist’ was also officially released. It highlights the original design of the Indian Constitution that favoured free mar-ket of land and fundamental property rights, as willed by the founding fathers.

The event witnessed outstanding participation from all stake holders dealing with urban develop-ment, management and governance contributing to creating sustainable built-environment, leading to Smart, Safe, Healthy, Green and Inclusive Cities, consonant with Municipalika’s vision of Building Vibrant Cities.


At the Vision Address session held on the first day of Municipalika 2014, three eminent leaders from

diverse sectors enlightened the audience about their vision of urbanisation and the important role of cities. Speaking to the audience were Dr Joan Clos, Execu-tive Director of UN-Habitat, Bruce Lazenby, President and CEO of Invest Ottawa, and Arun Bhatia, Director Sales, Carrier Technologies.

According to Dr Joan Clos, a more optimistic devel-opment strategy was needed whereby urbanisation was seen not as a problem to be avoided, but rather an opportunity for economic growth and development. He deemed the process of urbanisation as one of pro-viding a source of generating wealth and attracting investments. He expounded that with greater proxim-ity to production, the cost of transaction falls sharply leading to economies of agglomeration and urban value generation. Financial planning, proper legal framework, spatial design and good urban planning were important pillars of a successful city, leading to wealth creation, which could in turn be redistributed.

Dr Joan Clos spoke of the current International Urbanisation model which was essentially driven by the real-estate market. As per the contemporary model, motorable roads, and low mixed use land was prevalent. However, this model is not with-out its problems. These include firstly the differing cost of transaction with excess mobility, which ham-pers economies of agglomeration. Secondly, it has been observed that cities often become economically unstable with rising pollution. Sustainable cities thus

need to be made denser and more compact requiring at least 15,000 inhabitants/sq km instead of the cur-rent trend of 3,000. Dr Joan Clos concluded by stating that although urbanisation is desirable, the current model was not ideal, and the promotion of economies of agglomeration, high mixed-use and sustainability was necessary.

At the lively Question and Answer session that fol-lowed, Dr Joan Clos answered several questions from the audience including that from Sanjiv Agarwal, Founder Trustee of Good Governance India Foun-dation, the organisers of the event. Dr Joan Clos responded to the questions on land acquisition, tax collection, legal protection of green space and the sig-nificant role that time and people played in develop-ing the planning and design of a city.

Bruce Lazenby, emphasised on the aspect of pro-moting people and talent as contributors to the urban-isation process, which he claimed would not be going away anytime soon. He identified service provision and knowledge workers as major growth components for propelling a city forward. A ‘Smart City’ was hence one that consisted of an intelligent community that focused on social adoption and an ecosystem support-ing creation of jobs. He informed that an Intelligent Community Forum has been formed to deliberate on issues such as building the appropriate infrastructure, provision of education and digital inclusion to support betterment of cities. Tai Chung, Taiwan and Toronto, Canada have been chosen by the forum in previous years as ideal examples of Intelligent Communities.

Talent was recognised as the key to the future and the best talent was observed to be fairly mobile, being located in regions where there were opportuni-ties for work, play and growth. He stated that urban design and planning, thus need to keep in mind the crucial role of knowledge workers and the creation of other related jobs and subsequent agglomeration phenomenon.

He further outlined the success of Ottawa in being a region that focuses on such aspects by offering a reasonable cost of living, owning most patents in the country and being highlighted as a location where the workforce has higher skills and qualifications.

According to Arun Bhatia, the third speaker in the session, future cities have to be sustainable and energy efficient, as pre-requisites to economic growth. According to him, the private sector, in par-ticular the building and construction segments were required to build products in tune with the environ-ment. Adopting Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) Code and National Building Code (NBC) and the expanding Green Building Movement of the Indian Green Building Council, IGBC, are crucial in this sense.

Bhatia suggested that the importance of educa-tion and awareness on this topic was vital and con-sequently national skill development in green build-ing technology was imperative. Other key factors that he recommended include collaboration of companies and energy conservation through controlling energy and maintaining low waste processes.

Vision Address: Thought leaders spell out their vision of urbanisation and the role of cities

The Ministry of Urban Development has been supporting Municipalika since its inception as one of the unique initiatives for the urban sector, and in keeping with this the Government’s programmes like

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and 100 Smart Cities are being projected strongly at the conference and exhibition.

shankar aggarwal, IasSecretary, Ministry of Urban Development

Government of India

It is appropriate that one of the key focus areas at Municipalika 2014 is on affordable and inclusive housing initiatives, including policy intervention, best practices, and state-of-the art construction technologies and building materials which are ‘green’ and ‘cost-effective’. I do hope that Urban Local Bodies, housing development parastatals, and private sector from all over the country will participate in the

deliberations, sharing experiences, best practices and technologies for sustainable and inclusive housing development programmes.

anita agnihotri, IasSecretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation

Government of India

This conference [Municipalika] would lead to ideas which can be implemented throughout the country. We have to learn from not only national but also from international experiences. This would become a platform for knowledge-

sharing, experience-sharing, sharing of best practices and there is also an exhibition alongside which will demonstrate different technologies in the urban governance sector.

G r aloria, IasAdditional Chief Secretary

Urban Development and Urban HousingGovernment of Gujarat

By initiating the Swacch Bharat A b h i y a n a n d p r o m o t i o n o f foreign direc t investment in affordable housing

segment, urban development is at its momentum and directing us to good urban governance. Alongside, CM Anandiben Patel is also encouraging women empowerment and human resource development in Gujarat.

Mona Khandhar, IasSecretary, Housing & Nirmal Gujarat

Government of Gujarat

Bruce Lazenby

Arun Bhatia

Dr Joan Clos


Smart Cities & Green Buildings

Urban Innovation Challenge presents designs and ideas for Smart Cities and Green Buildings

The Municipalika 2014 saw the return of the Urban Innovation Challenge which witnessed a great

response from various planning, architecture and engi-neering institutions, students and professionals who

were keen to demonstrate their unique ideas with the aim of contributing to an improved built environment.

The Good Governance India Foundation (GGIF) Municipalika 2014 Urban Innovation Challenge (UIC) sought to identify the next generation of inno-vative solutions to systemic challenges in the urban areas, by under-graduate, post-graduate students and young professionals from various disciplines. Like last year, the Urban Innovation Challenge was sup-ported by United Technologies as Associate Partner. Zubin Irani, President, UTC Building & Industrial Systems (India), said, “As an innovation-driven busi-ness, we are also excited about supporting the Urban

Innovation Challenge, a competition among students of planning, architecture and engineering to evolve solu-tions to urban challenges in India, something we are passionate about.”

The participants found a great platform to present their ideas and get feedback on their innovative solu-tions from the delegates and stakeholders of Munic-ipalika 2014. At the event were present senior gov-ernment officials of all levels, industry practitioners, academia, members of think tanks and industry lead-ers. The winning contestants were further able to interact with special guest, Dr Joan Clos, the Exec-utive Director of UN-Habitat and discuss with him their vision for better future planning and design.

Winners were selected under four categories that included Post Graduate Macro, Post Graduate Micro, Under Graduate Macro and Under Graduate Micro.

The Jury

Chandrashekhar HariharanHead, Biodiversity Conservation India / ZED Habitats

K JaisimPrincipal Architect, Jaisim Fountainhead

Syed BearyManaging Director, Bearys Group

Leena KumarPrincipal Architect, Kumar Consultants

Vijaya R VasuDeputy General Manager, HUDCO

V SureshAdvisor, Good Governance India Foundation and Former CMD, HUDCO


The topic this year was centred on ‘Smart Cities and Green Buildings’. In the Post Graduate section, Anuj Kale, Austin Barboza and Maninder Reddy from Bharatiya Vidhyapeeth Deemed University, Pune and Bhavin Kantilal Patel emerged as joint winners. While the former group focused on tailored smartness and the issue of ‘What are Smart Cites’, the latter tack-led the concerns of Urban Refuse Recycling Project through his entry entitled ‘Human Ecologies and Its By Product’. First Runner-up, Ruchira Das, Sourav Chatterjee and Soumya Roy Chowdhury emphasised on Urban Farming Typologies such as roof and com-munity gardens in efforts of building ‘Sustainable Cit-ies and Township.’ Snehal Ramteke, Divya Shankar Rao, Abhinav Raj were second runner-up for their project with a tongue-in-cheek approach called ‘Why Sanitation?’ that outlined various paradigms high-lighting the urgency for sanitation facilities and the need for greater discussion on the matter. There were also several Jury Commendation winners under the Post Graduate section that included Atri Shah and Siva Namberi for their entry on ‘Recovered Build-ing Material’ –Case Study on Ahmedabad; Amrutha Chandrakant Thakur for her proposals on designs for ‘Reclaiming Public Space’ and Sathyavignesh and Mon-isha Edwina from Thiagaraja College of Engineering, Madurai for their suggestion on ‘Green Traffic Junctions’.

In the Undergraduate section, the winners Kyr-shanbor Hyniewta and Ambrose Garnett Kharkongor

from Goa College of Architecture aimed to capture the essence of building homes in the Sacred Groves of Mawlynnong Village in Meghalaya, known as the Cleanest Village in Asia. The first runner-up award under the same section was received by Subhodeep Maji and Anirban Maiti from Bengal Engineering and Science University, Howrah for developing Surat City in the coming years. Second–runner up title recipients Shekoba Sanap and Dhara Parekh from Academy of Architecture, Mumbai meanwhile highlighted a futur-istic design for Mumbai as reflected in their entry title, ‘How to unfreeze Mumbai’. Jury Commendation award meanwhile was given to Kapil Patidar, Anchal Saxena and Akshay Rewekar from Madhav Institute of Tech-nology and Science, Gwalior for their ideas on attempt-ing to mitigate CO2 emission and mobility control, presented as a case study of New Delhi through their entry named ‘Diversifying the engraved Urban Mobil-ity’. Vaishali Aggarwal from Jamia Milia Islamia too was given this award for her entry on developing the Old Delhi Central Business District of Shahjahanabad. Urban Innovation Challenge was coordinated on behalf of GGIF and Municipalika by Ar Gita Balakrishnan of Ethos India.

What lies next is the second or Incubation stage of the challenge, where a few of the most innova-tive and practical ideas are being short-listed from among all entries so that some of these may be trans-formed into reality through idea incubation and actual investments.

Promoted by Associate Partner Coordinated by


Canadian delegation showcases urban infrastructure solutions

Participation in Municipalika 2014 as Partner Country provided an opportunity for the new

Canadian companies entering the Indian market to get a real sense of the Indian urban infrastructure

sector, its potential, requirements and expectations. It was also a platform for the Canadian companies already active in India to network with the key munic-ipal and government decision makers, and urban stakeholders. Municipalika helped Canada build on its presence in the infrastructure sector, and high-light it as a source of technology and solutions with great utility for the Indian urban infrastructure sec-tor. 15 Canadian companies participated in the exhibi-tion to network with Indian and international stake-holders, to showcase their solutions in areas ranging from water, waste, sanitation, and environment, to

renewable energy, street lighting and traffic manage-ment. The overall objective was to position Canada as India’s infrastructure partner.

Canadian presenters also had a strong pres-ence at the conference sessions, with experts con-tributing knowledge inputs in various areas. Bruce Lazenby, CEO and President of Invest Ottawa, who made a presentation in Conference Session 01, also delivered one of the three Vision Addresses, brought forward the salient features that contribute towards Canada and Ottawa, in particu-lar, being ideal places for starting and growing busi-nesses. He highlighted that Canada has been ranked as one of the five best countries to launch a startup, helped largely by low inflation and economic stabil-ity, and was also cited as the top G7 country for eco-nomic freedom, linked to long-term economic growth and prosperity. According to Lazenby, in the light of various such facilitators, Ottawa is considered as a great place to attract, retain and harness human tal-ent, with opportunities for work, play and growth.

Sanjay Deshpande, Executive Director and Head of Operations, Clearford India spoke in Confer-ence Session CS04 “Healthy Cities-Integrated Water

Management” session on the challenge in vast gap in Litres Per Capita Per Day (LPCD) water supply. While 135 LPCD water supply was required for con-ventional sewage, in India only 50-80 LPCD was currently available. Installation of toilets and piped water supply were seen to increase wastewater gen-eration often resulting in open drains, choked sewer networks and polluted water bodies and groundwa-ter contamination. This poses as a major problem as 62% of South Asians have inadequate access to proper sanitation costing India 2.5% of its GDP or USD 54 bil-lion causing diseases such as diarrhea, and stunted growth, leading to medical costs and low earning potential. Several products under ‘Sanitation Rein-vented’- ClearDigest, SBS ClearConvey and ClearRe-cover have been launched by Clearford. These prod-ucts and services provide solutions such as removing solids at sources and performing primary, partial secondary treatment, providing network of flexible small bore pipes designed to move liquids to a central-ised treatment, and optimising treatment and solu-tions based on study and predictable quality of efflu-ent. He indicated that Clearford One is cost effective, provides maintenance requirements of networks, resolves environmental aspects such as pollution,

and minimising use of electricity, and Works in Vari-able and Low LPCD Water Supply areas.

Pramod Radhakrishnan, General Manager, South Asia, International Road Dynamics (IRD) South East Asia Pvt. Ltd. speaking in Conference Session CS07 session on “Connected Cities” highlighted IRD’s smart initiatives for transport and traffic infrastruc-ture that covered Last Mile, Data, Delivery, Opera-tions & Maintenance and Core Electronics (Control-lers and Sensors). He underlined the need for smart movement of freights and services, and elaborated on the Automated Highway and City Traffic Manage-ment System (AHCTMS). He stated that ‘integration was key’ and political will, and policy enforcements were as essential as technology for smart cities.


Swiss Delegation shows the way for smart, green, energy-efficient and eco-friendly citiesThe Swiss Agency for Development and Cooper-ation (SDC) has been a partner of India for more than fifty years. Since 2011, SDC’s programme focuses specifically on the issue of climate change. It is part of SDC’s Global Programme Climate Change (GPCC), which actively engages in multi-lateral climate change policy processes, supports innovative climate change and mitigation projects in targeted partner countries and facilitates the generation and dissemination of knowledge.

The overarching goal of SDC in India is to con-tribute to a climate compatible development over the long term in India. SDC aims to safeguard development achievements from the negative impacts of climate change and seeks to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions without compro-mising India’s development goals.

Three speakers representing the Swiss Dele-gation shared their expertise in their respective fields at Municipalika 2014. In the “Green Cities” Session Dr Sameer Maithel, Head of Project Man-agement & Technical Unit, Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project, and Dr Gunter Lohnert, Consultant, Indo-Swiss Building Energy Effi-ciency Project gave a joint presentation on the ‘Guidelines for Design of Energy Efficient Multi-storey Residential Buildings’. They explained that the objective for the period 2012-2016 was to contribute to lowering the energy consumption in new buildings and to promote best practices in designing and applying energy-efficient mea-sures. The aim was to build capacities and knowl-edge of builders, architects, engineers, labs, insti-tutions and others in the area of building energy efficiency in India by using Swiss experience and expertise. The duo described further the four com-ponents of the Indo-Swiss Building Energy Effi-cient Project (BEEP) which cover an integrated design approach promoting energy efficiency, reinforcing insulation materials testing proce-dures, developing guidelines for Minergie-India label and building capacity and imparting knowl-edge on the subject.

Speaking in the Session on “Smart Cities”, Car-oline Huwiler, Co-founder and Managing Direc-tor, Institute for Development, Environment and

Energy (IDE-E), suggested the means by which local governments could be empowered through sustainable energy planning and resource manage-ment, based on a case study of Morocco. Huwiler explained that in the course of executing vari-ous initiatives, city governments often struggled without adequate institutional support. She high-lighted the Quality-Management System for Sus-tainable Energy Management under the ‘Energy City Label’, (e.g. the European Energy Award). This has now been adopted in Morocco through a frame-work consisting of 4 phases including preliminary inquiry, participatory adaptation process, testing phase and review and adjustments. She further explained that the impact of Energy Cities after a

two-year Pilot Cycle has been to attract attention of donors and investment banks, reduce energy bill, stimulate national debates, and create local demand for technology and services among other benefits.


CAPEx highlights state-of-the art building and construction material, technologies and strategiesAt Municipalika 2014, special technical sessions were held as part of CAPEx, pertaining to Emerging Building Blocks and Technologies for Nation Building engaging in the broad themes of innovative building materials, modern construction systems, practice and technolo-gies, green building products, and techno-legal regime for acceptance of new products and approval systems including standards, testing and certification. Various specialists attended the sessions to share knowledge and explore diverse aspects in the building, construc-tion and engineering sector. Co-located with Munic-ipalika, CAPEx was a definitive one-stop shop for

technologies, processes, systems, materials, supplies, products and equipment for Construction, Architec-ture, Planning and Engineering.

Among the important topics covered were green technologies and products; fly ash in construc-tion technologies for cost reduction and durability

enhancement; need for a mature, standard ecosys-tem for construction industry; features of concrete, and its use in built-environment, including for pro-tection and conservation of heritage buildings; injec-tion systems, coating systems; trends and innovation in glass for driving sustainability; smart building design; compressed stabilised earth blocks (CSEB) and green load-bearing houses through reinforced concrete block masonry, RCB, with latest construction methods; lat-est technologies that provide advantages such as econ-omies of scale, low time-consumption and simplicity in application.


Municipalika was a great show and I think it is doing great efforts and moving towards lot of capacity building for India. This is my first visit at Municipalika and it’s a great effort in highlighting the importance of planning in urban development in India. The public

private participation is the most important concept in today’s world and it’s good to know the private sectors are coming upfront and participating in such issues.

Gaurish WagleTeam Leader, Urban Planning

MASDAR, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Our objective of coming to Municipalika was that this is a platform where most of the corporations of the country would send their commissioners and mayors. So Municipalika would be the best place to interact with more than thousand corporations at

the same place.

K A RavindranathGeneral Manager, Institutional Sales & Retail Finance

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Truck & Bus Division)

I am really impressed with Municipalika. It has great audience and a lot of interesting people bringing in lot of experiences and linking up ideas. As a representative of a business organisation seeking to engage with cities, it’s been a great experience for me

because this really feels like a place where cities are looking very harder how to solve some of these problems. In Municipalika, there are many solutions and great diversity and overall it is a very rich experience.

Joe PhelanDirector, India

World Business Council for Sustainable Development

I am very impressed and pleased by the way Municipalika is organised. There is a connection between what we are discussing here in Municipalika and what my organisation GORA is promoting from New York. The exhibition provides a good example of

promoting Public Private Partnership. I am very happy to attend this conference and come to India.

Gora MboupFounder & President

Global Observatory linking Research to Action

I think it is very interesting in India that the urban scale on green activities is very present. This is very encouraging because to our understanding in Europe, for instance, there are lot of activities on urban scale and I really like that to see in India. That urban scale is

also very present and also very important. What we have seen just right here in the sessions at Municipalika, it says problems are obvious and should be solved together.

Gunter LohnertConsultant

Indo Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project

Municipalika is a good centre for the exchange of opinions and knowledge among people. I was extremely impressed with the quality of the organisation and the congregation of the competent people that are here. I have been to many exhibitions

in the waste industry and this is an interesting exhibition. I was very pleased and honoured to be invited here and to contribute to the development in India and my first impression of India was a very good impression.

Dr Christian StiglitzPresident & CEO

European Institute of Environmental Economics

Municipalika was very interesting and it brings new perspective into how urban development is being done here in India. The impact of the discussions that happened here throughout the forum can have vast ramification. It was very interesting to see the big push

towards the sanitation program coming from the national government. Municipalika serves a very clear purpose for social discussions around topics that need the process to happen continuously.

Ricardo AlvarezResearcher

Senseable City Lab, MIT

Municipalika was a very good event, well organised and well managed, lot of informative sessions and a very good display of exhibition.

Satprem MainiArchitect-Director, UNESCO Chair Representative for Asia

Auroville Earth Institute

Municipalika was an opportunity for the new Canadian companies entering the Indian market to get a real sense of what is happening, its excitement, and engagement in the infrastructure industry. It is a also a great platform for the companies already active in India to network with the

key municipal and government decision makers. It has put Canada on the radar and shown that we do have some technologies and companies that can be of great interest to India.

Nicole LunsteadSecond Secretary (Commercial), Trade Commissioner

High Commission of Canada in India

The Prime Minister of India has announced 100 new smart cities. Along with that, every government department and municipal corporation is looking for smart governance, which is also a part of a smart city. Smart governance helps in managing public works,

transportation and other utilities. These solutions are what we are providing worldwide. At present, India is talking about it and we have the solution for them. That’s why Municipalika has been a great place for us.

Tariq FarooquiSenior Divisional Director – EITS

Rolta India Ltd.

It is a very good thing that the Government of India is trying to find out a way to move towards cleaner environment. If we compare ourselves with the developed countries, we will find ourselves as an aspiring one and are moving in the direction of a

developed one. If everyone thinks in a similar manner, then, it is a matter of time, that, we will be there, where all of us want to be. Municipalika serves that purpose.

Sandeep BathijaHead Marketing, Institutional Sales

TATA Motors Ltd.


I liked the show Municipalika because I wasn’t sure what to expect but I understand that there are over a thousand delegates who are very keen and there are a lot of people who care about the urban issues in India and want to be a part of the solution. I am very impressed with the

exhibition. There were some terrific technologies there. The Canadian-Indian connection is important. We are very keen to do whatever we can to help India advance and I think there are some great technology companies in Canada that have technologies that they can bring and help India through this urban transition. India is on the right course and it is heading in the right direction. It is going to take some time for some of these initiatives to create impact, but I think the world is watching and encouraging and certainly Canada is there with India in the process of Urban Development.

Bruce LazenbyPresident & CEO

Invest Ottawa

Municipalika has been a wonderful journey. Municipalika is promoting sustainability at the grass root level. What I love most about the Municipalika is that, we get a chance to share the learning from the entire country. The Municipal Commissioners come here and it is a wonderful meeting

ground right from the grass root level to the minister level. Municipalika gives us a fantastic opportunity, to the Indian Green Building Council, to come with guidelines, which the municipalities can use to tweak their own by-laws and to ensure that the buildings which are growing up in their municipalities are green. I am delightful to see the exhibition, the scope and the range.

Dr P C JainChairman

Indian Green Building Council


29%

33%

37%

1%

CEO, MD, President, VP

GM, AGM, Manager

Engineer, Executive, Consultant

Media

Exhibition: Municipalika + CAPExThe exhibition, one-of-its-kind for the housing and

urban infrastructure development sector, showcasing a variety of technologies, services, products, equipment, machinery and managerial systems incorporated into a common space of over 8,330 sq m, was much appreciated by delegates and trade visitors looking for solutions for sustainable habitat and integrated cities. Over 130 exhibitors displayed their products, services, ideas and technologies in 10 segments. Among the exhibitors, there were country, state and city pavilions too, as well as displays by urban parastatals. This combination of theory and practices, of discussion backed by actual demonstration, was found to be very useful by the visitors in various

technical areas of city management and governance.

Exhibition SegmentsWater & Waste Water / Solid Waste Management &

Recycling / Urban Transportation & Traffic / Environment & Pollution Control / Safety, Security & Disaster Management / Urban Infrastructure Development / Urban Housing Initiatives / Green Building Technologies / E-governance and Smart Cities / CAPEx

Exhibitor ObjectivesThe participation objective of the exhibitors ranged from

making business contacts, meeting top-decision makers and generating on the spot business, to meeting clients,

launching new products and monitoring competitors activities, among others. Seeking new business contacts was the main objective for 60% of the exhibitors, while for 55% exhibitors, the objective was to meet top decision makers from various state and cities; 57% of the exhibitors said their objective was to promote their brand and 43% said establishing a presence in new market as their primary objective of participation. More than 66% of the exhibitors achieved their objective fully and are looking forward to participating in the Municipalika next year. Since Municipalika takes place in different cities across the country each year, it provides exhibitors an opportunity to explore new, different and diverse markets. This was one of the strong USPs of the event.

60

53

45

57

43

43

55

42

% of Objective

Objective

To monitor activites of competitors

To meet top decision makers from various state and cities

To seek Immediate Business

To establish a presence in new market

To promote the brand

To meet Existing Clients or partners

To launch a new product

To seek new business Contacts

Objectives of Exhibiting

Exhibition StatisticsSegments - 10Exhibitors - 130+Exhibition Area - 8,330 sqm

13%

11%

18%

3%7%5%

14%

22%

7%

Exhibit Segments Water and Waste Water

Solid Waste Mgmt & Recycling

Urban & Infrastructure Development

Environment & Pollution Control

E- Governance

Safety & Security

Construction & Building Techologies

Urban Development Department & Municipal Corporpation

Media

Visitor Statistics

Total Visitors - 4,322Trade - 3,226Government - 1,096

6%11%

15%

68%

Mayor, Chairperson

Prin. Secretary, Secretary, MD, Head of Dept

Commissioner, CEO

Engineer, Officer

Government

Trade


From the deliberations of the Conference Sessions, the following major points of Observations and areas of Recommendations emerged

The agenda for creating Clean Cities with total sanitation as part of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan was con-sidered the most important intervention for changing the landscape of the country. The conference noted that in addition to the pol-

icy support from Government of India, State and Local Governments, the programme can be successful only with the full participative involvement of the citizens. To that extent it has to be made a people’s movement or Jan Andolan. Community toilets, socially and culturally

acceptable, appropriate, affordable and with indige-nous technology need to be encouraged. The technology and financing options for total

sanitation should take in to account the scale and size of cities and provision of sanitary options with safe dis-posal systems. In addition a major thrust has to be on cleanliness

in the cites through integrated solid waste management options for door-to- door collection, segregation, trans-portation, treatment and safe disposal. De-centralised options are preferable. Utmost efforts should be made for converting the waste to compost, refuse-derived fuel, and energy though various technology options. Segregation of waste at source specifically is to be

encouraged as it makes waste management more sus-tainable, in view of the qualitative waste factor being as important as the quantitative. Thermal treatment of the collected waste and adopting the waste-to-energy cycle can provide additional benefits such as the creation of bio-fuel gas, provided that the methods are efficient and pollutant emissions can be avoided. Considering the major challenges in housing in

cities as well as provision of shelter for slum-dwell-ers, under Housing for all by 2022, through the 30 mil-lion urban homes, the predominant thrust has to be on weaker-section and low-income group housing, through optimisation of all resources, land, finance, building materials and technologies for the speedy con-struction of affordable homes. For this the Governments at the centre, state and

local level have to create an enabling environment to get participation of all stakeholders, remove bottle necks and support with additional resources on land, finance, infrastructure and building materials. As part of the slum development strategy, in

addition to efforts for providing adequate and afford-able shelter and basic services, equal attention should be given for poverty alleviation, job creation and skill development. Inclusive planning to provide for the margin-

alised, poor and disadvantaged is a major message for future city planning – include the Master Plan for Slum free housing in the CDP. Needs of homeless people and pavement dwell-

ers have to be addressed through Rain Baseras or Night shelters with basic amenities and facilities.

The potential of land as a resource has to be fully tapped for enhancing the resource base as well as pro-viding equitable and inclusive solutions benefiting all groups. Considering the limited availability of land

there is sufficient scope to increase FAR/FSI includ-ing innovative TDR commensurate with infrastructure addition. Keeping in view the limited land and high costs,

low rise high delivery development has become neces-sary. The safety aspects from all points of view have to be kept in view and the building bye laws and enforce-ment have to take care of the same.

With a view to bring in vibrancy and conserve the traditional and historical importance of cities there is pressing need to conserve the present built environ-ment and heritage along with new developments. Cul-tural past is the pillar for future growth and the soul of the city has to be preserved and nurtured by respect-ing the natural elements of growth. Efficient water management systems including

waste-water recycling, have to be introduced compul-sorily, and traditional systems revived, and community involvement ensured to deal with the present water cri-sis. Water demand management with reduced fresh water demand of 90 lpcd as against 135 lpcd and use of treated waste water has become a necessity. Water con-servation techniques to be implemented in all building projects to bring in 35 to 40% water savings. Rainwa-ter harvesting and aquifer recharging has to be made compulsory. Disaster mitigation and preparation to deal with

natural and manmade disaster has to be one of the major thrust areas that require attention at the local body level. Most of the cities are ill-prepared. City Disaster Management plans should be prepared and the multi-disciplinary team fully coordinated to get into operational gear when disaster strikes. Assessing / documenting the natural capital within cities including preparation of geo referenced maps, emergency map plans etc. are some of the implementations. Proactive

Pre-Disaster Mitigation efforts should be given prior-ity rather than reactive post disaster response. Keeping in view the large scale automobile rev-

olution in cities, there is urgent need to encourage and strengthen public transportation modes, which are less polluting and energy efficient. Mobility manage-ment including strategies to avoid / address crowding / congestion need to be addressed on a priority basis including the mobility needs of pedestrians and dis-advantaged sections. Streets are also recognised as public spaces, and

cities need to incorporate designs for roads with larger walking lanes. Creation of awareness and publicising walking and cycling options are also the need of the hour, along with inter-connected network for open spaces. Transit-Oriented Development has also found support as it specifies higher density near transport hubs and aims to have an attainable walking distance. Considering the larger impact of global warm-

ing and climate change, there is a major need to adopt, technologies and practices, which will contribute to creating environment friendly, ecologically appropri-ate and energy efficient built environment. A major attitudinal change of mind, body, heart and soul is needed in this connection – a paradigm shift. The need for creation of “integrated green cities” has clearly emerged for which all encouragement should be green. With a view to promote 100 Smart Cities (upgra-

dation of brown field cities and creation of green field cities) an integrated and holistic approach is needed to bring in the smart elements in all infrastructure and built environment components as well as in the oper-ation, management and service delivery for the city development needs with 24×7 service life. Smart Cities need to also focus on sustainabil-

ity with green spaces allocated to communities along with not only a strong focus on technology but also the citizens and maintenance of the cities. Modern tools of GIS/GPS and Remote Sens-

ing to be utilized for city based information system and properties, natural resources and planning for development and infrastructure both above and below grounds. E-Governance to be given top priority for trans-

parency, information sharing, and provision of ser-vices to the citizens in user friendly and efficient man-ner – taking service delivery to the door steps of the people. Digitisation of records and enabling infor-mation to be accessed by the public online is to be encouraged. The initiatives for Public-Private-People’s Part-

nership (PPPP) to be encouraged for housing and infrastructure initiatives for all groups. There is an imperative need to strengthen local

bodies through capacity building at the level of may-ors, councillors, city managers, and service provid-ers to deal with the multi-dimensional development needs to make cities work. Appropriate training mod-ules suiting each group have to be evolved. The need for Urban Services Regulator was one of the impor-tant recommendations. The intense potential and needs for galvanis-

ing the people’s participation through CBO/NGO has come into sharp focus for partnership development and active citizen’s participation. Professionalism and transparency of functions

is required for efficient city management through capacity building programme. Financial planning and legal implications to be given as much priority as spatial design for developing cities. Cultures are changing fast and there is an immi-

nent need to adapt to new realities and plan policies accordingly with cities adopting new technologies and skill sets to execute them. Possible flexibility needed for diverse regional needs. Building positive relation-ships among all stakeholders and the capacity build-ing of the key actors is a priority. There is a need to augment the existing knowl-

edge systems, technical and financial resources base in small cities and towns along with attending the un-sustainability issues in mega cities. In order to achieve long term sustainability,

there should be focus on strengthening local processes and local relationships.


At the 12th edition of Municipalika, top participants of the exhibition were felicitated in the presence

of dignitaries such as Dr Sudhir Krishna, Former Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development; Dr Vivek Patel, Chairman, Gujarat Housing Board; and Dr K Mistry, Chairman, Gujarat Pollution Control Board. The Best Integrated State Participation awards went to Government of Rajasthan, Department of Urban Development and Housing Board and Government of Punjab, Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Develop-ment Company (PMIDC). Surat Municipal Corpora-tion, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Vadodara Municipal Corporation and the Municipal Corpora-tion of Greater Mumbai won the Best City Pavilion awards. The Best State Pavilion awards went to Gov-ernment of Rajasthan, Urban Development, Housing & Lsg dept and Urban Development Department and Guwahati Development Department, Govt. of Assam while the Best Booth awards went to Philips Electron-ics India Ltd, Sika India Pvt Ltd and Allison Trans-mission India Pvt Ltd. The awards for Best Display were given to Crompton Greaves Ltd, TATA Motors Ltd and Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. The award for the Best Range of Municipal Solutions went to Rolta India Ltd, Sintex Industries Ltd and The Supreme Industries while the Most Innovative Product award went to Beardsell Ltd and Cybertech Software Ltd. Other awards under specific categories included Best Sanitation Solution that was won by Gujarat Housing Department and Nirmal Gujarat; Best Smart City Ini-tiative given to Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT; Best Water Solution received by High Com-mission of Canada and Best Waste Management Solu-tion by Excel Industries Ltd and Redonnatura India Pvt Ltd. Gujarat Urban Development Co Ltd won the Best Integrated Urban Initiatives award while Guja-rat Municipal Finance Board received the award for Best Reform and Financial Management Initiatives.

Top exhibitors awarded at Municipalika 2014


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urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 21progressive cities | policy, reform, finance

2015 will witness lower bor-rowing rates and correspond-ing lower lending rates although interest rate cuts are expected to take place in March. According to Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive, Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd (HDFC), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will wait for the budget, examine what kind of deficit is left and then consider the rate cuts. K Mistry stated that current growth is being observed to come mostly from

Tier-II and Tier-III towns and cities.

He also explained that the government has been utilising ordinance route to push insur-ance in form and if it gets passed, it will certainly give comfort to foreign investors. However, even if this is not passed, the ordinance will still be effective in convincing people to put in their money. Speaking about the pro-posed merger between HDFC and HDFC Bank, he mentioned that various regulatory costs are

involved with the merger and some of those regulatory costs have been observed to come down by the virtue of the circu-lars which RBI issued in July, whereby they allowed afford-able housing loans as part of infrastructure lending. Hence, loans under certain categories, `40-50 lakh worth of loans and borrowing of seven year money will not qualify as cash reserve ratio/statutory liquidity ratio (CRR/SLR) in priority sector lending requirement.

RBI rate cut predicted to happen in March 2015

The World Economic Forum 2014 Gender Gap Index has been recently released to the public. The index was first introduced by the World Eco-nomic Forum in 2006 to pro-vide guidelines for analysing the intensity of gender-based disparities and pursuing their progress based on gender gaps on economic, political, educa-tion and health criteria. India is yet to revive its performance as it has slid from 101 to 114 posi-tion, out of 142 countries.

Noting specific rankings in the various sectors, in terms of economic participation and opportunity, India ranked 134 while female to male ratio in labour force participation was 0.36. The difference in esti-mated earned income was high with females earning US $1980 contrasted to US $8087 earned by their male counterparts. In terms of edu-cation and health, India ranked 126 with female to male ratio in literacy rate at 0.68 and sec-ond-lowest performing coun-try on health and survival, ranking 141.

However, interestingly in the arena of political empow-erment sub index, India ranked

an impressive 15. It is the top-most ranked country on the years with female chief of state (over the past 50 years) indica-tor. There is also notable evi-dence from India which implies that women roles in local gov-ernment make suitable finan-cial and budget decisions with better outcomes for commu-nities. In spite of women hav-ing lower education levels and less labour market experience, women post-holders seemed to be more competent repre-sentatives than men, secur-ing greater resources for their constituencies.

In spite of such promising statistics in the political field, women lag behind in other areas, for instance, India has the greatest disparity between men and women in total R&D personnel with the lowest percentage of firms with female owners.

India Center (IC) recently con-cluded the ‘India Japan Con-clave’ 2014: “Two Nations, One Goal”, which was organised with the aim of showcasing strong and historic collabora-tion between India and Japan leadership and business com-munities. Nearly 1000 key dig-nitaries from policy as well as the business sector attended the event which highlighted various topics including infrastructure, technology, healthcare, financial institu-tions and media from both countries. The conclave cen-tred on new socio-economic framework which will be built around energy efficiency, environmental responsibil-ity and sustainability (EES).

The discussion at the con-clave emphasised business and policy framework, built around energy efficiency, environmental responsibility and sustainability and aimed at strengthening societies not only in India and Japan but worldwide.

Inspired by the success of the India-Japan Conclave 2014, India Center (IC) has planned for a second India-Japan Global Partnership Summit (IJGPS) in 2015. This event is being perceived as a historical initiative that has ushered in a new chapter in India-Japan relations. India Center has been actively designing large-scale initiatives within the framework of IJGP.

Action points to be implemented by Thematic Groups in north-eastern IndiaGeneral (Retd.) Dr V K Singh, the Minister of State (Inde-pendent Charge) for Develop-ment of north-east region in Lok Sabha has called out the action points posed by The-matic Groups so that these could be executed by Min-istries concerned. Seven-teen Thematic Groups were formed by the Ministry to out-line specific action plans to set to action the 2020 Document.

The sectors comprise of the Panchayati Raj & Local Self Government, Poverty Erad-ication, Human Resource Development, Industry, major road connectivity, inland waterways, air connectivity, railways, rural roads, Tour-ism, IT enabled services and cyber connectivity, Power, Health, Rural sector, Finan-cial Services, Sports, Art & Culture and Look East Pol-icy. A detailed action plan for development of north-east-ern region, based on the anal-ysis of the groups was used to propose an action plan in a meeting held in Shillong on December 3 and 4, 2008. The north-eastern region Vision

2020 document was released by the government in July, 2008. The Vision 2020 is a roadmap for all stakeholders including concerned Minis-tries/Departments of Gov-ernment of India, Planning Commission, North Eastern Council and state govern-ments. It acts as the founda-tion for an integrated plan for the development of north-eastern region from 2008-09 to 2019-20. Goals, probable challenges and recommended implementation strategies for comprehensive development

have been included in the document.

The Ministry is constantly coordinating with concerned Central Ministries/Depart-ments for applying the nec-essary socio-economic pro-grammes and projects in the region. Further, at the sched-uled meetings of north-east-ern council and other review meetings, Ministries have been advised to chalk out their development plans, achievements and ongoing activities in north-eastern region.

india tops political empowerment sub-index in WeF’s gender gap report

india-Japan conclave 2014: Two Nations, One Goal organised by india centre

New Maharashtra government to focus on good governanceThe new government of Maharashtra is likely to emu-late Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ model, with Devendra Fadnavis being elected as the new Chief Minis-ter. The Fadnavis’ government seeks to reduce the number of government departments and even combine related offices in a bid to reform administrative functions.

It has been suggested that departments such as fisheries and dairy development as well as housing development and PWD will come under a sin-gle ministry. Fadnavis, aims to continue the Modi agenda of ‘good governance’ by high-lighting improvement of public

services through a Right to Ser-vice Act, which is particularly a pro-citizen scheme ensur-ing quicker delivery of public services.

“People are angry because they need to shell out money at

every stage to make things hap-pen. This is not right. No gov-ernment official can deny ser-vices to the people. The only way to get there is to make all services transparent and avail-able online,” Fadnavis said.

urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 22planned cities | architecture, planning, design

Jnpt port based multi products seZ launchedPrime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation of a Port- Based Multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Sheva, Navi Mumbai. This industrial infrastructure project is to be set up on 277 hectares with a total Public and Private invest-ment of about `4,000 crore. Over the next three years, the ambitious SEZ is to be created through JNPT-SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) under the Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) mode.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (formerly NhavaSheva Port Trust) was commissioned on May 26, 1989. Land of size 1172 hectares was acquired through Government of Maharashtra from 12 villages of the UranTaluka, District Raigad, Maharashtra, in the 1980s for the construction of the port. This was done as a section of the land acquisition

for the Navi Mumbai Proj-ect. During the acquisition, land owners voiced strong opposition. Nonetheless, the task was completed success-fully through a lot of meet-ings, consultations and dis-cussions. Land owners of the Navi Mumbai Project (from which JNPT was given land) at the time of acquisition of the land were assured that they would be receiving 12.5% of the developed land acquired from each of them. A perma-nent solution is required so that the Port which handles about half of India’s interna-tional trade goes on smoothly, can operate hassle-free while securing brighter prospects for land owners and people of the area.

The project is being designed further as a Self-Sus-tainable Integrated Develop-ment Project having a capacity of creating over 1.5 lakh direct and indirect jobs.

child-friendly infrastructure to be part of city planningThe need for child-friendly infrastructure was expressed by M Venkaiah Naidu, the Urban Development Min-ister. He expressed his con-cern over ‘harsh urban reali-ties’ adversely affecting ‘brain development and perspec-tives’ of youngsters especially the poor.

Inaugurating a two-day conference on ‘Building smart child-friendly cities in India for 21st century’, Naidu asked urban planners, architects and all stakeholders to deliberate on creating the right environ-ment for children for their all round development.

Observing that urban plan-ning in the country currently focuses on general objectives such as infrastructure devel-opment, sanitation including

solid waste management, Naidu remarked, “Time has come for city master plans to incorporate specific chapters to meet the needs of young children.”

The Minister noted that lack of appropriate urban plan-ning leads to adverse impact on children, particularly, those from the weaker section. “Of the 158 million children in the country, about 26% which means 41 million live in urban areas and eight million of them in slums,” he said.

He stressed on the need for providing adequate open spaces and play centres to nur-ture creative faculties of chil-dren. “Inclusive and children sensitive urban development strategies are the need of the hour,” he said.

Surat - the Diamond City is set to have a multi-function urban centre modelled on Hoog Cath-arijne in the Netherlands. A group of urban planners and architects, in-charge of the designing of the project, have expressed that Varachha was the most apt choice in location for the epicentre of the city’s development.

Close to 80 students and faculty of architecture of Sar-vajanik College of Engineer-ing Technology (SCET) are behind the formulation of ‘One Varachha’ project, which will embody ‘city within a city’ con-cept. The migrant population and connection to the trade of diamonds made the city an attractive choice for the proj-ect. Some of the main features for One Varaccha Project will include Public Park, retail and office space, public library, open

markets, entertainment hubs with game zones, open air the-atres, and service apartments.

“The project is envisaged to enhance the image of Varachha Road as a torch-bearer and self-sufficient sub-city of Surat. The local community, the city dwellers, the urban local body and private partners, who may invest in the project, will be the stakeholders. The project has already been conceptual-ised and now in design phase,”

remarked planning expert Persi Engineer.

Professor Vishal Shah, an expert in urban design said, “This project will have many avenues and will provide some-thing to all classes of people.”

Surat Municipal Corpora-tion Deputy Commissioner for Planning Jivan Patel said, “Such projects help achieve a holis-tic development of the city. We will work on it once its design is ready.”

Surat: New urban centre to be established at Varachha

New AP capital - with support for planning by Singapore and building by Japan

Japan is ready to join hands in building the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, which will be designed by Singapore, informed Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Andhra Pradesh, for the next 10 years, has the right to share the rich IT

hub of Hyderabad with Telan-gana, which was carved out as India’s 29th state in June. Fol-lowing which, Andhra Pradesh will no longer have control over Hyderabad as a capital.

Naidu also stated that his government plans to build the

new capital on 30,000 acres in the Guntur-Vijayawada region of the state in five years which would cost around `1 billion. He said that on his recent trip to Japan, several companies and government organisations expressed their willingness to be partners in building the state capital.

Naidu also informed that Singapore will prepare the mas-ter plan for the capital. He hopes to finalise this when Singapore’s Trade and Commerce Minister S Iswaran visits India. The Chief Minister also declared that a separate cell for Japanese firms will be opened in the industries department of his government for faster approvals to encour-age foreign investment.

Medellin’s transformation has been considered as one of the most remarkable urban redemption projects in mod-ern history. The city had faced issues of crime and drugs in the past. Of the several strate-gies employed, the government and citizens alike attribute the policy of ‘social urbanism’ as having the most influen-tial role in the metamorpho-sis of the city. The municipal government uses the biggest portion of its budget (85% of $2.2 billion this year) on infra-structure and provision of ser-vices for the city’s poor areas. That expenditure covers the community programs, inno-vative public transportation

solutions such as the cable-car public transit system and mod-ern architecture that has been constructed in hillside shanty-towns. The city officials seek to physically and emotionally link up the wealthy parts of the city with the hillside areas and also have developed the Ruta N hub which focuses on

employment generation in six key industries, namely health, energy and tourism.

“When you see Medel-lin, you realise everything is better – it’s better now,” says Carlos Jaramillo, working for project support in the Agency for Cooperation and Invest-ment (ACI). The city office works on selling the new image of Medellin. “The big-gest asset we have is that our city is known – sadly, for neg-ative things – but our strategy is to rebrand this,” he said. “If you check the papers from the 1990s it’s drugs, guns, bombs and failed state. Check now – its social innovation, invest-ment and business.”

Colombia: Social Urbanism strategies help transform Medellin

urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 23healthy cities | water, sanitation, waste management

Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan to bring together citizens of urban neighbourhoods through social mediaLocalCircles, India’s leading Community Social Media plat-form has announced that the Ministry of Urban Develop-ment has partnered with it to build online citizen commu-nities for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan at the national level and for urban neighborhoods and constituencies across India. The network would facilitate citizens to know about the best practices, share them and pro-vide collective inputs on Clean-liness and Sanitation to the Min-istry of Urban Development on an ongoing basis.

M Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Urban Development, Gov-ernment of India noted, “This is

a great example of citizen com-munities and technology com-ing together for the important cause of Swachh Bharat and I am pleased to announce this ini-tiative to engage citizens in the Abhiyan. This is a five year journey and it is very impor-tant that we initiate and sus-tain this initiative effectively by enabling easy participation from every citizen for cleaning their neighbourhood.”

Sachin Taparia, Chairman and CEO of LocalCircles said, “LocalCircles is pleased to be a partner to the Ministry of Urban Development in this much needed cause of Swachh Bharat. Community Social Media is one

of the best ways to engage citi-zens and communities in Gov-ernance, Development and Good Collective Action and we are glad to have the Ministry of Urban Development adopt it. The first governance circle – Transform India with Modi, has already set a great example with collective views of citizens being regularly submitted to the Government on critical issues ranging from Fighting Corrup-tion to Women & Child Safety in the last three months. With Swachh Bharat circles, there will be local citizen action on the ground to Clean India, in addi-tion to the online community discussions.”

CIL to provide funding of `235 crore for sanitation

State-run miner Coal India has announced plans of spending `235 crore for providing sanita-tion in schools and underprivi-leged homes in the present year. It has devoted more than 50% of the funds kept aside for corpo-rate social responsibility to the Swachh Bharat programme and the ‘Clean India’ initiative as men-tioned by Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi in his Independence Day speech.“This is the single largest project being undertaken ever by CIL under sanitation projects. Each of the eight CIL subsidiar-ies will identify at least one back-ward village under its command area in which projects will be undertaken. Additionally, other villages are being undertaken in which projects would be initi-ated,” said R Mohandas, Direc-tor-Human Resource.

The hygiene drive is likely to be finished by March 2015. The com-pany has also plans of appointing a large team of about 100 employ-ees to monitor the projects. “CIL will be engaging NGOs for con-struction of toilets. These NGOs will also undertake awareness campaigns for better sanitation. Around one lakh households are likely to benefit from this initia-tive. Some around 6,000 toilet facilities will be built in schools,” added Mohandas.

urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 24tech cities | built environment, engineering, construction

With China’s cities expand-ing at a tremendous pace, and therefore getting denser everyday, designers are seek-ing to layer more transport corridors vertically above and below ground. Example of such a model is the Shen-zhen Bay Super City – Xtre-mendous by UNIT Urban

New Idea Team. The almost 500 ft (152 m)-high walkways will link the individual tow-ers, integrating them into a common urban environment while the streets are left to be one with nature.

An open green space along-side cultural facilities, indoor fair and trade area, and

commercial spaces will help provide relief for the crowded streets. There have been sev-eral similarities observed with the proposed unbuilt World Trade Center Memorial and Towers by United Architects that combined together create a series of towers with extend-ing connective space.

Shenzhen Super City Vision designed as response to cities getting denser

A campaign led by some of the eminent architects have convinced Moscow City Council to overturn plans of doing away with the 150 m steel lattice radio tower in order to allow a new devel-opment. Engineer Vladimir Shukhov had designed the Shabolovka radio tower and was described by Foster as a work of ‘dazzling genius.’ An open competition could be introduced for the resto-ration and consequent use of Moscow’s 1922 Shukhov Tower now that it will no longer be destroyed.

Norman Foster, Tadao Ando, Rem Koolhaas, Eliza-beth Diller, Kengo Kuma and Thom Mayne were some of those who wrote to Russian

President Vladimir Putin, pleading to protect ‘Russia’s Eiffel Tower.’ Now Moscow City Council has announced that the tower will be given a structure protected status, highlighting its dominance on the skyline, its 3D design – it features five interlock-ing hyperboloids – and the method of its construction.

At the Brisbane suburb of Toowong, a trio of residential towers will be emerging from the Australian Broadcast-ing Corporation (ABC) aban-doned studio complex. Emi-nent Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid — the first woman to receive the Pritzker Archi-tecture Prize — has designed the towers that resemble a quilted diamond facade, depicting her trademark neo-futuristic style. The three tow-ers — which will range from 22 to 25 stories — will include 486 apartments and eight river-front villas, 635 car parks, and 7,300 square meters of public parklands. It also comprises of the preservation of the Heri-tage-listed Middenbury house, built in the 1860s, which will

be part of the site’s extensive parkland area.

Sunland’s Managing Direc-tor Sahba Abedian stated that the proposed development will be a refreshing element for the historic riverfront site. Abedian explained that each of the three residential towers will contain a unique multi-layered façade design including a curtain-wall glaz-ing, overlaid with a quilted diamond pattern built from glass-reinforced concrete. Zaha Hadid, Founder of Zaha Hadid Architects, said, “The design tapers each structure to minimise their footprint and open the riverfront to the public, to create a vibrant civic space for Toowong within a new riverside park.”

tallest residential building likely to come up in new york cityThe tallest residential build-ing is likely to come up in New York City with New York YIMBY having acquired the latest drawings of Nordstrom Tower. The building is specu-lated to be of a height of 1,477 feet (450 meters) above street level. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is designing the building.

New York City’s skyscraper boom is continuously reach-ing new heights and the cityscape could represent the current trends. New York City would once again gain the ‘tallest roof ’ title in the United States from Chicago’s Willis Tower. At present the tallest completed residential tower

is the Princess Tower(413 meters) in Dubai. Completion of 225 West 57th Street sched-uled for 2018, and the most recent permits — which were

partially sanctioned on July 1, 2014 show the potential of a total scope of over 1.2 million square feet (110,000 square meters).

Antwerp: New residential tower designed as vertical social community

C F Møller Architects and Brut Architecture are trying to change the monoculture that is often associated with residential buildings with their new residential tower in

Antwerp. They are combin-ing different types of housing on top of each other resem-bling a vertical community. The objective to achieve is “a sustainable and collective

community.”Both social interaction

and privacy are encouraged in numerous ways. The pro-posal contains a wide range of apartments catering to diverse groups of inhabitants, varying from small units suit-able for student co-housing to larger family and live-work types, all coming together as vertical mini-communities.

A full 25% of the area of the complex is dedicated to balconies, roof terraces, and ‘winter gardens’- kept within year-round glazed spaces at the corners of the building. A landscaped roof terrace is part of the building and “a triple-height green oasis at the top with spectacular views over Antwerp and the river Schelde.” Other features include a common dining room, and a bike repair shop. The building aims to attain the Passivhaus standard and has no provision for central heating system. According to officials, “great care is taken to mitigate the possible nega-tive effects that tall buildings can have on the local micro-climate, and to ensure a pos-itive contribution at street level.”

Shukhov Tower in Moscow gets protected status

Futuristic style towers to come up at brisbane suburb

urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 25green cities | environment, energy, ecology

Ljubljana, Slovenia has received the 2016 European Green Capi-tal Award, given out every year by the European Commission to cities that set an ideal model of sustainable urban devel-opment best practices. Previ-ous winners of the title include Bristol, elected as the 2015 win-ner and Copenhagen, elected as the 2014 winner. The award is given on criteria of the city’s urban and environmental man-agement strategies and commit-ment to sustainability. In partic-ular, the European Commission considers indicators such as cli-mate resilience, urban mobility, air quality, waste management,

and water quality along other parameters.

Ljubljana was chosen mainly due to its sustainabil-ity plan Vision 2025, which entails an integrated approach to securing ambitious sus-tainable development goals. An Environmental Protection Program, a Sustainable Mobil-ity Plan, a Sustainable Energy Action Plan, and an Electro-mobility Strategy are vital ele-ments of the plan. Adequate execution of these and other steps taken in recent years has helped to improve life in the Slovenian capital. Ljubljana is also now a leader in addressing

climate change with the city officials having proposed plans of reducing emissions from 50% to 80% by 2050 from 2008 lev-els. This goal is supported by the city’s commitment to trans-parent dealing in terms of envi-ronmental information. The World Summit Award, a United Nations initiative, chose Lju-bljana’s Thermal Power Plant (TE-TOL) as one of the world’s five best practices in the area of environmental protection and health for its effective commu-nication with residents, and informing them about its emis-sions and impact on health and the environment.

Ljubljana receives the 2016 European Green Capital Award

Scientists in the U.S. have developed a genetically-engi-neered bacterium that can produce ethanol biofuel from coarse, wild-growing switch-grass, instead of using vital food crops such as maize. The scientists have stated that a simple, one-step method that converts plant tissue into bio-fuel has been developed. A genetically-engineered bacte-rium can transform switch-grass into ethanol directly, without any need for expen-sive pre-treatment with enzymes to break down the cellulose fibres for better fermentation.

Biofuel is already a boom-ing business in the U.S., with 13.3 billion gallons of etha-nol being used for vehicle fuel in 2012. It is a carbon-neutral form of fuel, which although

has several advantages, none-theless much of it has been converted from maize, a food crop that needs sizeable agri-cultural land that could alter-natively be used for food pro-duction. Researchers at the University of Georgia at Ath-ens as per the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have now stated however, that their new microbe, called Caldicellulo-siruptor bescii, can not only transform biomass cellulose to sugars, but also produce eth-anol for fuel from the sugars.

Mini thermal plant to be built to ensure greater power supply in Bengaluru

In order to bring relief to the power situation at least in Bengaluru, the state govern-ment is aiming to provide a steady power supply to the city by drawing power from the pro-posed mini thermal plant along with adopting plans for solar energy.

Energy Minister DK Shi-vakumar stated in the legisla-tive assembly on Tuesday that

a mini thermal plant would be established on the suburbs of Bengaluru on a 100 acre plot. “We are planning to set up this plant 150 km from the city,” he said. Explaining further the uninterrupted power supply to city, the Minister explained that Bengaluru would be trans-formed into a solar city through installation of solar panels on rooftops. “All individual,

residential, commercial, insti-tutional, government buildings and industrial units are eligible to set up solar power plants on rooftops to generate solar power and sell the surplus energy to the state grid,” he said.

Bengaluru, unlike other cit-ies in the country, does not have a constant power grid or sup-ply system. Although expen-sive, such a grid system is much needed for the city. Earlier a proposal was made to con-struct a gas based power sys-tem in Bidadi, but this did not materialise due to legal issues. Shivakumar said the gov-ernment is aiming towards establishing the mini ther-mal plant and as the ini-tial request for proposal has been moved. The depart-ment has also announced plans to convert Yelahanka diesel based plant to a gas-based plant.

Delhi seeks to emulate Gujarat’s rent-a-roof solar projectDelhi is trying to take inspira-tion from the Gujarat model, as Gandhinagar’s rent-a-roof project may resolve Delhi’s power situation through use of solar energy. If the model is replicated in Delhi, it is capa-ble of generating 50-100 MW. This was recently discussed by the capital’s top officials with their Gujarat counterparts. As per the instruction of Lieuten-ant General Najeeb Jung, three teams of senior officials visited the state to study the Gujarat model.

Some of the other proj-ects being considered include Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati riv-erfront project and the CCTV-based city surveillance system in Surat. The teams also vis-ited the river and several solar power projects. Under the rent-a-roof project, residents give their rooftops on hire to private

solar energy companies. They are in turn paid `3 for every unit of energy generated. Apart from residential buildings, gov-ernment buildings like schools and hospitals are also leased out for solar panels.

A team, led by Delhi’s Prin-cipal Secretary (power), visited several solar power projects, such as the ones at Gandhi-nagar secretariat, fly ash dyke and houses where solar power

is being created on terraces. The team also had a meeting with D J Pandeyan, Additional Chief Secretary (energy).According to the statement by LG Jung’s office, “Gujarat has done pio-neering work in solar power generation. Therefore, a team has been sent to Gujarat to study solar power projects and see the possibility of taking up such power projects and pro-moting solar power in Delhi.”

ethanol biofuel can now be produced from switchgrass instead of maize

Laptop batteries can give light to slums in India Research by IBM India, has shown that discarded batter-ies from laptop can give power to the slums of India. From examining a sample of dis-carded batteries, researchers found that 70% had enough power to keep an LED light on for more than four hours a day for a year i.e. an estimation of 50 million lithium-ion lap-top batteries discarded every year could provide electric-ity storage sufficient to light homes in developing coun-tries. As stated by a MIT Tech-nology review, LED lights can be combined with solar pan-els and rechargeable batter-ies, although using discarded batteries could make the pro-cess far cheaper.

Vikas Chandan, a research scientist at Smarter Energy Group, said, “The most costly component in these systems is often the battery. In this case, the most expensive part of

your storage solution is com-ing from trash.”

The discarded battery packaging was opened and individual storage units called ‘cells’ were extracted. These were later tested to separate out the good ones and then recombined to form refurbished battery packs. In order to prevent overheat-ing, they added charging don-gles as well as circuitry. These were then given to five users in Bengaluru slums or those who operated sidewalk carts. After three months, the users men-tioned that the battery packs had worked well.

urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 26connected cities | urban mobility, mass rapid transport, communication

india tests out feasibility of north-south Water transit corridorIndia, with aid from Russia and Azerbaijan, has begun testing the main routes of the North South International Transport Corridor so as to examine its cost-effectiveness and explor-ing the potential of Indian com-panies using the route for trade with former Soviet republics. Sohail Hassan, Member of the Advisory Committee on the corridor of the Federation of Freight Forwarders Associa-tion in India, visited Astrakhan with Ashish Sharma, the Assis-tant Secretary in the Embassy of India to assess the potential of goods being shipped between

Russia and India the transport corridor.

Meanwhile, a test con-tainer has already been sent through the transport corri-dor, via Baku, and is scheduled to arrive in Astrakhan.The duo also has plans of visiting the Central Astrakhan cargo port, the VTS-port and the Olia port. They will attend the meetings

that are going to take place in the Russian Ministry of Indus-try, Transport and Natural Resources, talks with the Astra-khan customs management and the Astrakhan branch of Rosselkhoznadzor, Volga Rail-road and TransContainer along with a group of experts for con-tainer transport in the Astra-khan Chamber of Commerce.

The Indian representa-tives will test the viability of the Astrakhan water-trans-port network for transit of Indian containers through the corridor based on the informa-tion collected on their visit.

delhi to rank 7th in the world with over 200 metro stations in 2016

The completion of Delhi Met-ro’s Phase III is set to not only expand the total length of its network in the national capital but also make Delhi a city with one of the high-est number of metro stations to be found anywhere on the world map.

Over 241 stations will be part of the Delhi Metro net-work after Phase III which will make it the seventh city in the world to have more than 200 metro stations. In Asia, Delhi will have the greatest number of metro stations after Shang-hai, Tokyo, and Seoul. While most of the current metro net-works with more than 200

stations are operated by multi-ple operators, in Delhi, besides the six stations of the Airport link, all other lines are oper-ated by Delhi Metro Rail Cor-poration (DMRC).

In 2016, the DMRC network will be of about 330 km and by 2016, it will have 241 stations and the length of its network in the city will be a total of 330 km. There are an estimated 160 metro stations in the world in about 54 countries across the world. Delhi Metro has recently ranked second among 18 international Metro systems in terms of overall customer satisfaction as analysed in an online customer survey.

The United Nations has formed a high level advisory group on sustainable transport. This group has been formed to pro-vide recommendations on sus-tainable transport actionable on all levels global, national, local and sector, over the com-ing three years. These recom-mendations will be sent to Sec-retary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The International Trans-port Forum (ITF) has received well the idea of constitution of such a body. The theme for their Annual Summit of Trans-

port Ministers of 54 member countries in 2015 in fact is sus-tainable transport. This meet-ing is scheduled to be held in Germany.

Secretary-General of ITF at OECD, Jose Viegas said, “The creation of the UN High-Level Advisory Group on Sustain-able Transport constitutes an important step towards focus-ing on transport as a priority building block for sustainable

development. More than 40 years after the first oil crisis of 1973 and more than 20 years after global warming became a household word, transport is still 97% dependent on fos-sil fuels and produces almost 25% of man-made carbon emissions. The time has come to end this, because it is simply unsustainable.”

He further explained that high rates of urbanisation also required suitable response in the transport arena to guar-antee the continuous growth

of cities in the coming decades is achieved through stable and sustainable means. “Where efficient urban mobility sys-tems provide good access, growing cities can be places of opportunity and motors of economic growth. Without it, they are prone to become poverty traps and even places of squalor. The choice is ours, and we face it now,” Viegas added.

un forms new sustainable transport advisory group with support from itF

India aims for greater transport connectivity with ASEAN countriesIndia has plans for greater connectivity with the ASEAN countries with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj emphasising on the geographic pathways could be linked to the five Ts – Tradition, Talent, Tourism, Trade and Technol-ogy – that the Narendra Modi government is pursuing.

At the Third Round Table on ASEAN-India Network of Thinktanks, Sushma Swaraj explained the connectivity with the 10 member bloc is required to incorporate institu-tion-to-institution and people-to-people linkages. Geographi-cal connectivity is needed to be multimodal and bring together land, sea and air connectivity. She said the connectivity proj-ects could be strengthened if “we can bring in the soft infra-structure to advance trade integration and facilitation through joint transit arrange-ments and allow easier move-ment of goods and people.”

Speaking further on the status of connectivity proj-ects with the ASEAN, the

Minister explained that 160 km of the Tamu-Kalewa-Kale-myo (TKK) Friendship Road as a constituent of the Trilat-eral Highway from Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand have been constructed. “We are committed to another 120 km in the Kalewa-Yargyi sec-tor and the refurbishment of 71 bridges on the TKK road. Myanmar and Thailand are to complete their respective segments,” she said. Sushma Swaraj further talked about India beginning negotiations on a Transit Transport Agree-ment between India-Myan-mar-Thailand for the Trilat-eral Highway. She informed

that the Kaladan Multimodal Project in Myanmar, includ-ing the port at Sittwe, is near completion.

Speaking about the poten-tial for India partnering in creation of Special Economic Zones Kyaukpyu and Dawei in Myanmar, she added, “There are opportunities for creation of infrastructure and capacity in manufacturing and indus-trial development, for skills training and vocational educa-tion, for establishing logistics chains, energy grids and food processing capacities, which in turn would help address issues relating to energy and food security in our region.”

The Ministry of Road Trans-port and Highways (MoRTH) has brought out the Draft Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2014.Once it is approved and becomes an Act, the current Motor Vehi-cles Act, 1988, will cease to exist. The Bill will help the Vehicle Reg-ulation and Road Safety Author-ity in enforcing minimum safety standards for vehicles, roads and the drivers. The authority will be required to regulate the National Unified Information System, thereby centralising details on vehicle registrations, driving licences, insurance, permits, penalties, accidents, etc. The Bill also prescribes a Unified Driving Licensing System as well as Auto-mated Driving License tests.

“The Draft Road Trans-port and Safety Bill, 2014, has been put in public domain. We

express dissent against it as it is unrealistic. It is said the Bill is drafted with the best practices of advanced nations, but the gov-ernment is proposing it without assessing the ground realities in India. Here, we have bad roads, resulting in high number of acci-dents. We are still backward

in implementation of the latest technology. Transport drivers are seen as criminals, road con-dition is poor, vehicle population is increasing. There is also short-age of drivers,” said KK Diva-karan, General Secretary of All India Road Transport Workers’ Federation (AIRTWF).

Road Transport and Safety Bill introduced to regulate road conditions

urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 27humane cities | habitat, housing, real estate

Several companies are seeking to enter the affordable housing sector with names like Mahin-dra Lifespace having already made the move under the new brand ‘Happinest’. “As part of our financial inclusion method, we have already started inter-acting with potential custom-ers, by visiting industries in the vicinity and reaching out to them,” Sriram Mahadevan, Business Head of Happinest.

Other companies include Ajmera Group who has a large housing project of `12-18 lakh apartments at Khardi near Mumbai and Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate that is developing projects in eastern and western India. It is planning to enter the market with a price range of `18-45 lakhs.

Bengaluru-based devel-oper Puravankara Projects Ltd’s value housing branch-ing Provident Housing Ltd, is constructing 10.5 million sq ft over six projects, and has

another 10 million sq ft that will be developed in the future. Also from Bengaluru Ramesh Ramanathan, the founder of affordable home developer Janaadhar (India) Pvt. Ltd in the city has finished his first project in the city and has two more in the pipeline. “We have approached it slowly

and knew from the start that there would be challenges. Most entered the affordable housing segment based on certain assumptions, with no operating evidence of scal-able models, but some learn-ings came out of it in the last four-five years,” commented Ramanathan.

Realty developers show interest in affordable housing sector

Major affordable housing project completed in PalgharValue & Budget Housing Cor-poration (VBHC) made its mark in the Indian affordable housing sector with deliv-ery of over 350 homes at its Vaibhav-Palghar project in Mumbai. VBHC is known as the first real estate developer in the entire Palghar area that has built 350 apartments in a record period of 20 months.

At the handover ceremony, P S Jayakumar, Managing Director, Value and Budget Housing Corporation (VBHC) said, “This is a proud moment for us at VBHC to have been able to deliver homes for pos-session to 350 owners within the promised period. At VBHC, we believe in creating

sustainable communities for our customers. The Palghar project is a testimony to our endeavor towards the same.”

The project extends over an area of 47 acres with 70% of open space with landscaped gardens and a children’s play ground. Vaibhav- Palghar like other projects of the company incorporates the use of FORM based construction technol-ogy. The project also includes numerous sustainable ele-ments like dual plumbing, solar water heating, bio gas plant and sewage treatment plant along with recreational amenities such as club house, shopping complex as well as other facilities.

India realty sector to increase to 8.2 bn sq ft by 2025

Haryana: PPP model for affordable housing to be used

The Indian realty sector has been predicted to increase from 3.6 billion sq ft in 2013-14 to approximately 8.2 billion sq ft by 2025. This is expected to lead to a rise in employment prospects to near 17 million by 2025, creating reasonable num-ber of socio-economic oppor-tunities for growth. The real estate sector is likely to con-tribute to 13% in the nation’s economic growth in 2025, up by almost double the 6.3% rate of 2013-14. The CBRE-AMCHAM report, India Real Estate Mar-ket Scenario, essays to dem-onstrate not only the capacity of the real estate sector in the country’s economy, but also its role in attracting investments. A notable aspect of the report is its city-level real estate map-ping of six major urban cen-tres of India, combined with a medium to long-term forecast on each segment. Major fac-tors that have played a part in this noticeable growth include

a booming economy, increase in disposable income, high immi-gration levels to cities and per-ception of sector as conven-tional investment asset class spurred on particularly by a thriving IT/ITeS industry.

Ajay Singha, Executive Director, Amcham India stated “The burgeoning importance of the real estate sector lies in its significant contribution in the development of India’s

infrastructure base. The Gov-ernment of India is taking sev-eral steps to boost growth in the real estate sector as that would help create employment and improve the country’s econ-omy as well. The sectoral out-look put forward by this report would prove very useful for studying the overall Indian real estate market. We look forward to work with CBRE again for such initiatives.”

Manohar Lal Khattar, Haryana Chief Minister, mentioned that to provide affordable housing, a single agency or the government

could not achieve it alone and so cooperation with the private sector is much sought after.

The Haryana government

would consider partnering with Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association (CRE-DAI) to make available housing facilities to people, he informed, while asking all big developers to make efforts to provide such facilities in rural areas based on the patterns for urban areas.

Private sector was also rec-ommended to make afford-able housing a part of their Cor-porate Social Responsibility (CSR) involvement for the larger public interest which would help prevent migration from rural areas and strengthen the economy.

Snapdeal partners with Tata to offer affordable housing onlineIn an innovative, new kind of venture, Snapdeal Indian e-commerce site has stated that it would sell real-estate on the internet, in collaboration with the Tata group to supply ‘affordable housing’.

With support from E-bay, Snapdeal and Tata Value Homes, part of the tea-to-steel Tata Group, will start off with providing 1,000 units in seven projects spread over five cities — Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chen-nai, Pune and Ahmedabad.

`3.1 million ($51,000) to `7 million ($115,000), is the range of average costs for the apartments aimed at the

middle-class of India, whose income rates are predicted to rise further. Potential buy-ers will be able to block apart-ments for a non-refundable down payment of ̀ 30,000. The prices are comparatively lower than others in the market as real estate prices have been rising in Indian cities. “We’ve changed the way consumers shop (through e-commerce). Now we intend to change the way they buy their homes,” said Snapdeal Founder Kunal Bahl. “This is the first time an e-commerce site has got real estate as one of its categories in India.”

urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 28Resilient Cities | disaster mitigation, safety, security

In Bengaluru, new fire safety measures have been announced that will be imple-mented along with those already existing in the Indian National Building Code. Omprakash, Director-Gen-eral of Police, Fire and Emer-gency Services, Karnataka, said that buildings taller than 60 meters will be subject to new fire-safety rules. Speak-ing at a seminar on fire safety organised by the Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Com-merce and Industry here, he outlined the three mandatory steps:

• Installing a sufficientnumber of water curtains in basements

• Installingsmokescreensin lobbies and staircase areas

• Installing chutes everytwo floors, from rooftop to ground level

The water curtain would form a hydro-shield to restrain the spread of fire, the

smoke screens will protect the open lobby areas from smoke and allow faster evacuations. Both technologies have to be connected to smoke sensors in order to operate efficiently.

new fire-safety rules for bengaluru’s tall buildings

A huge October snow-storm led to a power cri-sis in Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecti-cut. The college of 3,200 stu-dents, with help from the state, has recently installed a ‘microgrid,’ that allow it to support keeping the lights on at its facilities even if the nearby community loses power. The micro-grid is a self-contained system for cre-ating and allotting power. This is a concept that is becom-ing popular across the U.S. especially in the Northeast, as communities try to improve

their resilience.Wesleyan can protect

itself from widespread power outages by creating its own power and ensure that elec-tricity is distributed to the 312 buildings on campus without any reliance on the outside grid. The college can hence better cater to the needs of its students and act as a plat-form to coordinate disaster response for Middletown. Authorities in Massachusetts, Maryland and New York have also introduced various mea-sures to support the creation of microgrids.

Bengaluru and Chennai have joined the 100 Resilient Cities network, committed to help-ing cities across the globe and become more resilient to phys-ical, social and economic chal-lenges. The two Indian cities were selected from 331 appli-cations from global cities for the 100RC network, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, New York.

The declaration of the incorporation of the 35 new cit-ies was made at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Urban Resilience Summit in Singapore. Accord-ing to the network, Chennai was among the chosen cit-ies for developing coordinate disaster response plans to shield low-lying coastal areas

when confronted with a high flood risk. The city is seen to make efforts to learn from past events and is continuing to provide best-practice solu-tions to other regions.

For Bengaluru, the net-work stated that the city has a sturdy investment in the tech support industry however disruptions to infrastructure such as those resulting from seasonal monsoon flooding can have serious negative con-sequences for industry and the city’s economic stability.

Australia: Urban designs created to tackle heat-waves

Heat-waves known to be Aus-tralia’s biggest natural killers are increasingly getting worse due to climate change. It has been predicted that tempera-tures in Melbourne could soar upto 48°C or higher. Given the impact of the urban heat island effect, there is mount-ing pressure on Australian city authorities to take care of the health aspect of their res-idents during extreme heat conditions.

Although urban forestry has had considerable effect on city heat mitigation, designs at

the street level scale, especially for the spaces between build-ings have been identified as being crucial in achieving the goal. A recent study in Sydney asserts that streetscapes have higher minimum tempera-tures than rooftops, highlight-ing the significance of cooling this highly utilised segment of the city. This approach can be extended to even streets, train stations and car for the same purpose. Spaces can be created with optimum comfort levels through a mix of shading, low-ered heat buildup in materials,

humidity and wind manage-ment. Suggestions have also been made to offer heat ref-uges at street level to provide comfort for the hot days. Else-where in the world similar ini-tiatives are being taken includ-ing Transolar engineers, who during the bid for World Cup 2022 showed how stadia could be designed to combat the high temperatures in Qatar and the Jade Eco Park in Taiwan, a cli-matically controlled park that attempts to alter temperature, humidity and to provide clean air within microclimates.

microgrids become popular as communities seek resilience against power outages

Bengaluru and Chennai join 100 Resilient Cities Network

Indian scientists aim at tackling climate changeIndian scientists have high-lighted the need of implement-ing urgent steps to tackle the issue of climate change that is a potential threat to the coun-try. Keeping in mind climate change and its implications for India, scientists from JNU, IIT Delhi, IARI and UCAS Bengaluru focused on coun-try-specific points in the recent IPCC reports that include agri-culture production, increase in sea-level, floods, droughts and cyclones, carbon dioxide con-tent in air, temperature change

and associated heat wave and melting of Himalayan glaciers.

“Climate change is real and happening in India. These issues have a direct impact on our daily lives and it is neces-sary that we start taking mea-sures to address the issue,” said V Rajamani of School of Environmental Science, JNU. The UN climate summit held in New York also helped to popularise the concerns for climate change and provide political backing for future negotiations.

urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 29smart cities | it, gis & gps application, e-governance

Mobile app designed to make cities saferA group of youth from the Samyak organisation have set out to identify unsafe areas in Pune, particularly for women with the help of an app. 20 areas have already been iden-tified and 2000 spots in Pune will be further added to the list after careful inspection. In collaboration with the Delhi based ‘Safetipin’, a mobile application, this initiative has been developed.“The app will also give an idea why particu-lar areas are not safe. The data for dangerous spots will be collected and used to develop safety tools for women,” said Anand Pawar, Founder of Samyak. With increasing crimes being committed in the city, empowerment and safety of women have become an important issue and safety audits are required for the

entire city.‘Safetipin’ will be avail-

able on all mobile platforms and can be downloaded for free. The risk related to such areas will be decided on cri-teria of street lighting, access,

facilities for pedestrians and the population density. The police will patrol the areas to ensure safety, while Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will fix any infrastructure issues in the given areas.

Tourist Visa on Arrival program for 43 countries launched in India

Tourist visa-on-arrival (TVoA) can be availed online by 43 coun-tries such as Australia, Bra-zil, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Djibouti, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, Ger-many, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kingdom of Tongo, Laos, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Papua & New Guinea, Philippines, Republic

of Kiribati, Republic of Korea (i.e. South Korea), Republic of Marshall Islands, Republic of Nauru, Republic of Palau, Rus-sia, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tuvalu, UAE, Ukraine, U.S., Vietnam and Van-uatu, allowing tourists to visit India within 30 days of approval.

The tourists would receive the electronic travel authori-sation via email from Indian authorities, which gives the

right to prospective tourists to a 30 day stay in India. This facil-ity can be used only twice within a year with the sole objective of recreation, sightseeing, short duration medical treatment, casual business visit, casual visit to meet friends or relatives etc.

The TVoA enabled with ETA facility would be available at nine international airports in the country namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Thiruvanantha-puram, Kochi and Goa.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, while launching the scheme, stated that India has been the centre of attraction for people around the world for centuries due to its philoso-phy and spiritualism. This ini-tiative would help to promote travel and bring family mem-bers together and encourage business visits.

China’s National Adminis-tration of Surveying, Map-ping and Geoinformation has announced its first develop-ment plan for the geographic information industry. The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Mapping Geo-graphic Information Bureau partnered in presenting the ‘National Geographic Infor-mation Industry Development Plan (2014-2020)’.

Chinese officials recognise the geoinformation industry

as the new source for eco-nomic growth and seek to set up an all-inclusive indus-try system with autonomous intellectual property rights by 2020. GIS will be used in manufacturing, navigation and positioning services, map publishing, expanding mar-ket share hence making the industry more competitive on the whole. Training of profes-sionals, R&D, international tie-ups, statistical analysis are factors that are together expected to boost the sector.

national geographic information industry development plan (2014-2020) released by chinaThe Ministry of Urban Devel-

opment (MoUD) has prepared a rough copy concept note on smart city scheme.

Venkaiah Naidu, the Urban Development and Housing and Poverty Alleviation Minister mentioned that 100 smart cit-ies would be created including all state capitals and union ter-ritories and reduce interest rate on home loan to ensure hous-ing for all.

Smart cities also include 44 cities in the population range of one to four million people, nine satellite cities with a population of four million or more, 10 cities that are of religious and tour-ist importance and 20 cities in the 0.5 to one million popula-tion range.

The draft mentions-Institutional Infrastructure (including Governance), Phys-ical Infrastructure and Social Infrastructure constitute the three pillars on which a city rests. The centre of attention for each of these pillars is the cit-izen. In other words, a Smart

City works towards ensuring the best for its entire people, regardless of social status, age, income levels, gender, etc.

The smart cities would be developed through 3D maps on GIS of property and all ser-vices such as power, water sup-ply, sewerage, etc.

Ministry of Urban Development presents draft concept note on smart city scheme

Pimpri Chinchwad Munici-pal Corporation is set to uti-lise GIS mapping utilities that include water and drain-age lines and power cables. In order to maintain and repair the utilities it is expected that the GIS mapping will play a crucial role. The range of util-ities includes also those lying underground including tele-phone and internet cables.

The civic body at pres-ent does not own accu-rate maps of underground water and drainage pipe-lines, streetlight, power, tele-phone and internet cables. Consequently, there have been many instances when underground cables and pipeline have been acciden-tally damaged while repair-ing roads and other pipelines

according to Civic Chief Rajiv Jadhav.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has also stated that GIS will be used to incor-porate the existing utilities in the latest developmental plan so as to lead to improve the delivery of services by the various agencies involved.

“After the city’s roads are brought under the common umbrella of the BMC, the process of issuing permis-sions for digging trenches and restoring the spaces can be better coordinated. It would also ensure that ded-icated civic staff are avail-able for the work,” an offi-cial remarked. “This way the maintenance of all roads can be monitored effectively.”

pimpri chinchwad municipal corporation to map utilities using latest technology

urban neWs digest | January 2015 • 30vibrant cities | heritage, conservation, tourism, culture, public spaces

On the occasion of Good Gover-nance Day, the Union Minister of State for Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation, Dr Mahesh Sharma launched sev-eral initiatives. These include Swachh Bharat Swachh Sma-rak E-poster, an initiative to see a cleaner India for protecting and preserving the sanctity of mon-uments of national heritage. The special poster with the Prime Minister’s message requests the tourists and the people of the nation to engage in the clean-liness of their surroundings. The Ministry of Tourism is also launching the special welcome cards carrying information of the local India Tourism office. These will be handed to all the tourists, landing at the nine international airports where Tourist Visa on Arrival Enabled with Electronic Travel Authorisation facility is operational. Also for launch is

the much acclaimed and sought after “Incredible India” Calen-dar 2015 that showcases some of the country’s greatest architec-tural marvels as they were years before.

Other initiatives include Launch of Booklet on “Badte Kadam”, a Hunar Se Rozgar Tak (HSRT), Incredible India Helpline at 1800111363 and Swachh Bharat Swachh Pakwan (Hunar Zaika) which upgrades skills and hygiene standards

of Street Food Vendors. The Ministry of Culture has also launched the web based e-tick-eting system, braille book on Delhi monuments and Adarsh Smarak based on the identifi-cation of 25 model monuments by the Archaeological Survey of India that is to be included under Model Monuments for protec-tion. These include Qutb Com-plex, Delhi; Taj Mahal, Agra; Rani-ki-Vav, Gujarat and Fateh-pur Sikri, Agra etc.

initiatives launched by ministries of tourism & culture to celebrate good governance day

Himachal Pradesh: Indian Institute of Bodh Drashan to be established at TaboThe Indian Institute of Bodh Drashan is set to be estab-lished at Tabo, that also goes by the name ‘The Ajanta of Hima-layas’ and is set to emerge as an avant-garde centre of Buddhist learning. Situated in Spiti sub division of Lahaul-Spiti dis-trict in Himachal Pradesh, Tabo monastery has been a centre for study of Buddhists philosophy and tribal culture from its beginning in 996 AD.

Virbhadra Singh, Him-achal Pradesh Chief Minis-ter, explained that in order to preserve the ancient seat of Buddhist studies at Tabo, the Union Ministry of Culture has agreed in principle for set-ting up the Indian Institute Bodh Darshan (IIBD) at Tabo. The `45 crore project will be entirely financed by the union government.

Known as a protected

monument by Archaeological Survey of India, Tabo monas-tery has some of the ancient and most exquisite Buddhist murals and antique paintings dating back to 11th century. It is unique in this aspect among all monuments across the world.

“Tabo has evolved as an

important centre of learn-ing and setting up of IIBD will further bring the state on the International map, which will help the schol-ars and the academicians to pursue higher stud-ies on Buddhist literature,” Singh said.

Dundee, Bilbao, Curitiba, Helsinki and Turin have recently received the award for UNESCO City of Design status for their contribution to the international design industry.

The award was given by international heritage body UNESCO, in recognition of the efforts and endeavours of the five cities to the worldwide design industry.

Each city ranked top in their respective countries of the UK, Spain, Brazil, Fin-land and Italy to secure the title. The scheme sought to

promote the development of local creative industries, and to provide a conducive envi-ronment for building rela-tionships and resource-shar-ing between fellow Cities of Design. City of Design status is given out as part of the Cre-ative Cities Network, set up by UNESCO in 2004, which also acknowledges works in areas of literature, art, music, film and gastronomy. The 42 mem-ber network has been created to promote cultural exchange and improve member cities’ attractiveness for the incom-ing tourists and business.

UNESCO awards City of Design status to 5 cities

Delhi: Initiatives taken to save Shahjahanabad heritage areaThe Delhi Urban Art Com-mission (DUAC) is outlining guidelines and redevelopment strategies to prevent the dete-rioration of Shahjahanabad, the walled city area of Delhi.The DUAC study extends from the Old Delhi Railway Station to the Nicholson Road. The organisation has broadly rec-ommended saving the heritage places by converting them into museums and cultural cen-tres, eliminating encroach-ments and increasing the resi-dential area.

The landscape includes mosques, temples, bazaars, havelis, katras and narrow bylanes, conjuring a unique

image. This however is in dire need of urban renewal and the conservation approach is being utilised so as to ensure the preservation of the overall essence of the walled city. The body also will be drawing up a plan for the area that includes various buildings with heri-tage value in terms of archi-tecture, besides Kashmere Gate, a key Archaelogical Sur-vey of India-protected mon-ument and the Dara Shikoh Library. These buildings are of great significance as they play a crucial role in maintaining the character of the area and in developing socio-cultural linkages.

ahmedabad: heritage buildings become centre for investmentOld Ahmedabad has many tra-ditional havelis and palaces which have become places of interest for the NRIs and pri-vate investor. They not only preserve the buildings but also can gain profits from these.

Rajiv Patel, Co-Founder of the Excel Group in Ahmed-abad, inaugurated City Her-itage Centre, a community-based resource centre in Ahmedabad which assists in restoring, sustaining and promoting Gujarati heritage properties.

Rajiv Patel, who obtained the 10,000 sq ft Diwanji Ni Haveli in 2007 for `2.5 crore, said, “We are trying to bring about grassroot development among haveli owners in the walled city, whose properties

are in a dilapidated state. We are asking them to give out two rooms for bed and breakfast facilities so that the returns from this can be used for renovation of their properties.”

The wooden haveli that is 250 years old has been trans-formed into an educational and cultural centre, equipped with audiovisual rooms, classrooms, cafeterias and a central courtyard that can be used for photo shoots.

municipalika 2014 in gandhinagar gets outstanding … associate directors nitin telang r mahesh...

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