Urban Update Jan 2015

ISSN 2349-6266

RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

UrbanUpdate Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

Volume I - Issue IX

JANUARY 2015

vision for cities

2015

Cities need resilience

How smart is a smart city?

2015 - A year for action

Need sturdy municipalities

For bright urban future

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Urban

Dialogues January 23, 2015 Sahyadri Guest House, Mumbai

Liveable Metropolis Mumbai The focal point of the next Urban Dialogue is on transforming and repositioning Mumbai Metropolitan Region into a ‘Liveable Metropolis Mumbai’. The economic capital of the country faces many challenges of its own. And, the most challenging being the repositioning of the growth strategy for Mumbai Metropolitan Region, availability of affordable housing, sustainable mobility within the region and making a safe destination to work, stay and invest.

Dialogues Next

Organising Team

Dr. Jatin Modi President AIILSG

Ranjit Chavan Director General AIILSG

SMart energy for smart cities

Dr. M Ramachandran Former Secretary-UD Government of India

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF URBAN AFFAIRS, NEW DELHI fEB 03, 2015

URBAN DESIGN SCHOOL OF PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE, NEW DELHI fEB 14, 2015

Organaiser

Dr Sudhir Krishna Former Secretary-UD Government of India

Co-Host Raj Liberhan Former Director India Habitat Centre

For speakers and sponsorship requirements, please contact Prathiba Raju: + 91 9711669512, prathiba@urbanupdate.in Jessy Iype: + 91 9810020938, jessy@urbanupdate.in

www.dialogues.urbanupdate.in

INSIDE

Inside vision 2015

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Cities Need Resilience

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How Smart Is A Smart City?

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2015- A year for action

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Community coordination must for disaster management

We can build smart cities if we are smart

It will be a year when cities will take the lead

The Way Forward Country should switch over to smart urban transit

Need Gender Responsible Cities Women health should be given more significance

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Need Sturdy Municipalities

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Good Governance To Tackle NCDs

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Map Slums For Systematic Health Plan

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Plan For Optimal UD

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For Bright Urban Future

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Solutions For Urban Conundrum

To make cities smarter, municipalities needs to be efficient

Good urban governance can increase life expectancy

For systematic urban health plan mapping of slums is crucial

City zonal plans must be self sustaining

2015 will be a year where cities will be liveable

For self-sufficient cities, apt urban planning, design is needed

41 Newscan

46 Urban Agenda

January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

Why Healthy Cities Matter Cities needs holistic approach on urban health

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For Smart, Sustainable Cities

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Build Green Infra Too

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From City To A Brand

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Data To Be Vital In Future Cities

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Make Cities Eco-Sensitive

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Relook At City Planning, Mgmt

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Scientific Disposal Of E-Waste Needed

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Cities should be socially inclusive regenerative and resilient

Cities need to promote green infrastructure

Cities are turning into brands and identities

Urban informatics will be the backbone of digital cities

Cities have to grow in harmony for a sustainable future

ICT can be helpful in managing urban sprawl

Streamlining of e-waste necessary

Lets Make Cities Liveable Good city managers are needed for good governance

Network Of Healthcare Facility Is A Must City planners should create holistic environment for healthcare

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On Development Spree

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Healthier Cities For All

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Develop Sustainable Cities

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Housing To Get Major Boost

REGULARS

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Mega projects, new technology and skilled workforce make cities grow

City administrators should promote healthy neighbourhoods

More focus should be given to small and medium size town

Liberalised FDI will boost housing sector

EDITORIAL

Dr Jatin Modi President-AIILSG Ranjit Chavan Editor-In-Chief & Publisher Director General-AIILSG, dgaiilsg@gmail.com Apresh C Mishra

Overhaul engines of growth in 2015

Managing Editor, apresh@urbanupdate.in Lojy Thomas, Aiilsg Associate Editor, lojy@urbanupdate.in Prathiba Raju Assistant Editor, prathiba@urbanupdate.in Abhishek Pandey Principal Correspondent, abhishek@urbanupdate.in Jessy Iype Desk Editor & Reporter, jessy@urbanupdate.in Meenakshi Rajput Graphic Designer, meenakshi@urbanupdate.in Volume I - Issue IX For Feedback & Information Write at info@urbanupdate.in Printed and published by Ranjit Chavan on behalf of All India Institute of Local Self Government. Printed at Cirrus Graphics Pvt Ltd B-61, Sector-67, Noida – 201301 Uttar Pradesh. Published at Sardar Patel

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ew Year has arrived with hopes and aspirations for better future for cities. We’re all surging forward and now we have 2015 before us. All of us would have exchanged greetings of the New Year with a firm anticipation of good days ahead in 2015.

Though, it is not practical unless we do something to make it a reality for us.

With all the toasts and vows, let us make a resolution that we all will contribute our bit to make our cities cleaner, sustainable, and, of course, happier.

This issue brings our readers the views and opinions of experts in different domains of urban space. Their visions will certainly help us in shaping the cities for better. The year is going to be significant for cities for multiple reasons. This year will see the beginning of the ground work on Smart City, Digital India, Housing for All, and other schemes primarily focused on improving urban life.

Population in Indian cities are increasing at a fast pace and over 50 percent of the total population would reside in urban centres of human settlements by 2050. It has become important that we plan our cities not only just to accommodate the increasing population but to provide them with better living in tune with the requirements of the citizens.

We also need to understand the challenges that Indian cities will face in the years ahead. This is why Urban Update decided to bring together experts to mark the problems our cities are facing, and possible solutions for the same.

This will certainly help the government, and urban planners at the national and local level to plan city development with an optimum approach.

With all the best wishes, I wish you a Happy New Year.

Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area, D Block Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-58 Phone No. 011-2852 1783 / 5473 Despite careful selection of sources, no responsibility can be taken for accuracy. The magazine assumes no liability or responsibility of any kind in connection with the information thereof. All right reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher.

Ranjit Chavan dgaiilsg@gmail.com

www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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VISION FOR CITIES

VISION 2015

Indian cities are riddled with multifaceted problems. Some of them are unique to them and others are general in nature. The vision issue intends to provide reflection to the past experiences, inspiration for forging ahead to policymakers, and practitioners involved in urban development, whether at local, regional, or national level. The optimal development of the cities would decide the future of India in this century as we will have more that 50 percent people living in cities by 2050 06 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

VISION 2015

www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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COVER STORY

Dr Jatin V Modi President, AIILSG

Disaster Management

cITIES NEED RESILiENCE The vision for every city with the onset of the new year should be a preparedness, readiness, action rehabilitation, cohesive public participation along with research and development to combat the gridlocks in providing public services

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o m m u n i t y coordination is the way forward to mitigate the impact of any disaster.

An example is the Perth train accident, in Australia, where a man’s leg came in between the train and the platform.

The incident was seen as an example that restored faith in humanity as hundreds of passengers came out of the train and pushed it to help the person escape an accident.

Similar examples can be witnessed in Japan, the world’s most technologically advanced and earthquake-prone nation.

Such precedents showcase that cohesiveness of people and discipline which helps the authorities in a big way during the mishaps.

Apart from this, rumour and panic too aggravates the impact of disasters.

There are numerous instances of deaths due to stampedes and theft cases followed by fabrication during a devastation. Keeping the social media from rumour mongering at the time of disaster becomes crucial. Immediate and regular dissemination of correct information should be followed in order to do away with the hearsay.

Cities need to create a pool of data, which has a clear history of disasters at each level. Their managers should also know the availability and the number of essential equipments like the oxygen cylinders, cranes 08 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

and concrete cutters that is vital and should be stored in such a manner that it can be used optimally during times of need. Fire safety measures needs to be given due importance, while ensuring that the firefighters have safety apparatus like the fire safety jackets, extinguishers, smoke alarms, masks, helmets, escape hoods, among others.

A monitored mechanism needs to be created for the hospitals wherein a centralised record system of symptoms is updated to alert the agencies during any epidemics, or outbreaks. Right measures needs to be incorporated to train suitable personnel to act in time along with a fitness audit on regular intervals.

Mobility must be enhanced

Population in city grows, and so do the urban transport woes. While not much can be done about the cities as centres of economic activity drawing people from all over, the transport infrastructure can certainly be revamped and augmented to bear the load of rapid urbanisation.

Next to keeping the infrastructure up to date comes the challenge of regularising and reining in the unhindered movement of small vehicles in the city space. Those vehicles should be kept away from prone-to-crowding areas by slapping heavy fines for entry there, as is the

case in London. Absence of such deterrents and low parking charges have left cars and motorbikes sneaking into even crowded places and turning the situation worse.

But before checking the entry of cars into central locations, a strong network of feeder services to and from main transit points is a must. Use of smaller buses for the purpose can further help improve the situation.

After all, it is feeder services in the European cities that have kept those free from the congestion.

Unscientific erection of flyovers and bridges also create traffic bottlenecks, as those offer only limited solution and for a short span of time.

Experiments globally suggest that underground diversion of traffic has an edge over the option of flyovers.

But, due to high costs involved, traffic tunnels have mostly remained buried in the plan books. Maybe, the PPP model of funding comes in handy in this context. Besides, encouraging and incentivising people to use public transport can be another way to curtail gridlocks. Government establishments should sensitise their employees for using public transport instead of their own vehicles.

The pace of urbanisation calls for some drastic, early measures to prevent cities from coming to a grinding halt. Let us work together to make cities liveable and safe.

VISION 2015

Sunita Narain Director General, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)

Smart City

How smart is a smart city?

The NDA government’s proposal to build 100 “smart” cities will work only if it can reinvent the very idea of urban growth in a country like India

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mart thinking will require the government to not only copy the model cities of the already developed Western world, but also find a new measure of liveability that will work for Indian situation, where the cost of growth is unaffordable for most.

The advantage is that there is no agreed definition of smart city. Loosely it is seen as a settlement where technology is used to bring about efficiency in resource use and improvement in the level of services. All this is needed. But before we can bring in smart technology, we need to know what to do with it. How do we build new cities and repair groaning urban settlements to provide clean water to all, to manage the growing mountains of garbage, to treat sewage before we destroy our rivers and to do something as basic as breathing without inhaling toxins?

It can be done. But only if we have our own dream of a modern Indian city. We cannot turn Ghaziabad, Rajkot, Sholapur, Tumkur or even Gurgaon into Shanghai or Singapore. But we can turn these cities into liveable models for others to emulate.

Take water, sewage, mobility or air pollution.

The current model of resource management, developed in rich Western cities, is costly. It cannot be afforded by all. Even these cities cannot rebuild the paraphernalia for providing services to their people. This system was built years ago, when the city had funds and grew gradually with recurring, high investment. Even if we were to build greenfield cities, we cannot wish for such investment. We need a new approach to humane urban growth.

The first principle in this is to accept that we have to renew what already exists. Take water, for example. Our cities have been built to optimise on the available resources. They were smart in building

lakes and ponds to harvest every drop of rain. This ensured that the city recharged its water table and did not face floods every time it rained. We need to revive that system. It may not be adequate to meet the growing needs of the city, but will cut costs by reducing the length of the pipeline and bring down distribution losses. Once we do this, we should add the smartest technology for measuring supply and for reducing demand. Flush toilets are antiquated.

We need smart appliances to conserve water and smart ways to recycle it.

We know our cities do not have underground sewerage to speak of. A un-smart thing to do would be to fall into the trap of civil engineers to build sewerage network. Delhi, which has the highest network of sewerage lines (some 5,000 km), needs to build another 10,000 km to meet the need of its current population. Now, knowing that the existing network, built over a century, is already clogged and broken, the task is impossible.

We know our cities used septic tanks or open drains for sewage management. So instead of burying these drains, the aim should be to treat sewage in these channels and to reuse the recycled water.

We can do this in the case of energy as well. Today, our cities are pampered by subsidy because energy cost is high and supply is squeezed. Why can’t we build a new grid for the city based on solar rooftop generation and super energy-efficient appliances?

This should also be the approach for designing mobility. Our cities have been built to be car-free.

We are now desperately shoving, pushing and parking vehicles down the narrow lanes. Think smart. Change the idea of mobility itself—build for walking, cycling, bus and metro.

So we can only build smart cities if we are smart.

Really smart. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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COVER STORY

Dr M Ramachandran Former Secretary, Urban Development, Government of India

Urban Development

2015- a year for action Taking a cue by the year gone by, the new year has a lot of groundwork that needs to be done among the state government and local bodies for implementing numerous initiatives for the Indian cities

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he year 2014 was actually a year for stock taking for the Indian cities, the critical factor

January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

being near completion of the nine year Urban Renewal Mission period, which provided opportunities to bring about changes in infrastructure, service

delivery and governance of cities. Also being the election year, the first half of the year was crucial to see the next step in support of urban rejuvenation.

VISION 2015

Challenges staring cities

Census 2011 has given us stark details about some of the key challenges before our cities. Well over one third of all slum households in the country is in cities with the population of over a million. Only 66 per cent households have latrine facility. More than 11 per cent of urban residents have to travel more than 100 meters to collect their morning water every day.

Basic infrastructure deficiency in our cities can be better appreciated when we compare the per capita capital expenditure of about Rs 15,180 of London with Rs 780 of Chennai and Rs 1448 of Kolkata.

With the JnNURM funding and era is more or less over, no state has probably succeeded in completing all the approved projects and reforms. It is time for the states and cities to take stock as to where they stand and what needs to be done to perform better.

Nothing much was visible in terms of further steps to take the service level benchmarking agenda forward and come out with regular status as to what the cities have been able to improve. Similarly, the credit rating of cities is another important city reform measure of which nothing much was visible. Garbage issues continued to dominate the urban confusion of many cities. No state has taken serious note of this issue and worked out strategies at the state level as it is increasingly becoming clear that in densely populated areas, the cities alone cannot handle this problem.

Also, some alarm signals are there about the Solid waste PPPs in certain cities of UP and Maharashtra. This is not a happy sign. On the drinking water front also there have only been some limited initiatives like a small number of cities deciding to have PPP arrangement for parts of the city.

Malkapur in Maharashtra seems to have achieved the level of 24x7 water supply city wide now.

Few best practices

Certain states have showcased a better example with a clear policy and target oriented approach, for example

Madhya Pradesh stands out as a state with various key urban initiatives which directly touch the lives of urban residents. The Mukhya Mantri Shahari Swachchatha Mission is well on its way with four towns having become open defecation free with the vision of becoming hundred per cent open defecation free by the year 2017.

There are some sparks visible in the area of extending e governance further in the cities. Surat city through its m-governance expansion and Nagpur through digital inclusion for smart governance are good examples.

On the public transport front, there were some new beginnings. Probably due to the election compulsions, Pune and Lucknow got in principle approval for their metro rail systems.

Now Nagpur and Ahmedabad also have got sanction for their Metros.

There is more action visible regarding the Noida to Greater Noida metro link in the NCR with state approval and ground level work getting initiated.

Kerala’s mono rail projects for two cities still seem to be trying to find a way forward. Mumbai’s much awaited first Metro corridor and monorail started functioning. Cities got more buses sanctioned under the mission programme. Among some notable initiatives, mention needs to be made of the Chennai Corporation’s determined bid to promote nonmotorised transport by notifying a Non-Motorised Transport policy.

2014 - list of promises

The budget for 2014-15 of the new government at the centre had raised expectations of our cities because of the large number of new initiatives announced. The one hundred Smart Cities program, infrastructure expansion support for at least 500 habitations, support for urban metro projects for two million plus cities, enlarged pooled municipal debt obligation facility, endeavour to have housing for all by 2022, Swachch Bharat Abhiyan to cover every household by total sanitation by 2019, the national Heritage city development and augmentation

scheme, scheme for development of ghats and beautification of riverfront, Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission, development of industrial corridors with smart cities linked to transport connectivity, push for the Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor and completion of master planning of three new smart cities in the ChennaiBengaluru corridor are all programmes which call for lot of preparatory work by states and cities as well as making many of them attractive for private participation.

2015 – implementation required

Based on the 2014 preparatory work, 2015 will be the year when cities will have to take the lead to get ready for implementation. One hopes that the current Finance Commission’s Report will help better flow of resources to the cities. It is also time to have a serious look at some of the key governance issues like how to structure appropriate mega city governance systems as these cities, need to have responsive and effective governance, formation and operationlisation of Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities to manage city transport of all modes and various other city transport management issues in an integrated manner. General agreement among states with the participation of cities to have a well structured reform agenda to go with the two new major urban programmes, adhering to the basic requirement of ‘one size does not fit all’, is a must. How to enable the census towns, which in effect are villages today but are fast on the track to become notified urban areas, get on to the path of proper urban facilities, is another major policy challenge.

Challenges before our cities are many but today there is a framework available which the cities can take advantage of. Improving governance, better service delivery, generating the required confidence for the private partners to come in actively with funds, strengthening the much needed local body level capacities, to name some of the key ones, are also opportunities for our cities to rise to the occasion. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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COVER STORY

OP Agarwal Director General, Institute of Urban Transport (India)

Smart Mobility

the way forward Country should switch over to smart urban transit, which makes a city to use the the minimal consumption of energy, least pollution and the least demand on urban space

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rban mobility is getting complicated with high level of motorisation.

This is leading to severe problems of congestion, air pollution, road accidents and the rapidly increasing consumption of petroleum fuel.

The primary focus of innovations in the urban transport sector has been in improving public transport and the use of Information and Technology (IT) as a means to optimise transport services. Use of IT has helped integrate different forms of public transport and also reduce empty haulage of taxis and other vehicles. It has helped improve freight movement and has reduced the need for motorised travel, improves passenger information systems and has allowed better monitoring of public transport services.

Comprehensive plan required

A city has several components and all of them are needed. These include economic opportunities, housing, transport, healthcare, education, recreation, entertainment and safety.

It includes water, power, sanitation and other utility services. Planners need to keep in mind that a good city needs all of these and only providing some is not enough.

Smart urban transit is one that meets the required demand for travel 12

January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

with the minimal consumption of energy, least pollution and the least demand on urban space. The strategy should be to improve public transport and infrastructure for cycling and walking. The most retrograde step will be to build elevated roads as these spoil the aesthetics of a city and contribute to motorization. The perceived improvement in congestion is temporary.

The most important feature of energy planning in a city is to look at how efficiently it uses energy.

Poor energy efficiency is leading to high consumption and greater pollution. Improved energy efficiency actually leads to savings that can, in itself, make current energy systems adequate. Alternative sources that can supplement these are solar power and power generated from solid waste. Bio mass can also contribute to a city’s energy sources.

Steps required are a well-planned and integrated public transport system with a good infrastructure for walking and cycling. This will reduce the need for using public transport.

Last mile connectivity - essential

Last mile connectivity can be provided by several means. Good feeder buses, good pedestrian paths, bike sharing systems, park and ride facilities, etc are good examples of last mile connectivity. There are several

examples of these around the world.

Singapore has a good infrastructure base for walking as a means of last mile connectivity to its excellent metro system. Bogota has good feeder buses linked to its world famous BRT system, Paris has a good bike sharing system as do several other cities in Europe. Most US cities have good park and ride facilities at their metro stations.

Administrators in small cities need to improve their road network, but should also focus on introducing a public transport system from an early stage. This helps avoid the kinds of problems that cities have faced when they tried introducing public transport too late.

It has helped improve passenger information systems and has allowed better monitoring of public transport services.

The priority for city managers and urban developers should be to prepare their cities to accommodate the urbanisation that is taking place. This means providing the basic facilities that people need – housing, water, transport, education, healthcare, safety, etc. It will be equally important to promote economic activities so that people are able to secure jobs and a reasonable level of income.

Towards this end cities need to be well planned and allowed to develop in a planned manner.

VISION 2015

Prof Dr Mukesh Kanaskar Director- International, AIILSG, Initiator and Convenor of Men for Women’s Health Movement

Health

need Gender responsible cities Cities should become more gender responsible particularly in health. Women’s health should be a

matter at the center of our radar

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omen empowerment and gender equality has close association with their health and nutritional outcomes. Global Gender Gap Report 2013 by World Economic Forum ranks India precariously low at 135 on health & survival status of women out of 136 countries analyzed.

While we envision for 2015 and beyond, women’s health and the responsible and accountable role of men vis-à-vis women’s health should be a matter at the center of our radar.

Though India‘s National Population Policy 2000 has ‘empowering women for health and nutrition’ as one of its crosscutting strategic themes, the health status of women in India is extremely low. Despite various institutional and civil society efforts, the progress needs much acceleration.

One way of providing the impetus is emphasizing a hitherto less focused aspect:

Enabling responsibility

Health is one crucial domain of life which can enable men to make a direct impact on the gender dimension.

Men’s engagement holds greater significance as men being involved in women’s health through their multiple roles. This envisages men to imbibe and practice gender equality in all facets of life, overcoming the gender stereotypes of women’s primary role as reproduction & care giving and men’s role as providers.

Reproductive right

Another crucial domain is of reproductive rights. This is also closely linked to preventing child marriages and consequently early child bearing, sexual violence, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The acceptance of permanent family planning methods is poor in India.

Most of the users are females e.g. undergoing tubectomy, taking oral contraception pills or opting for IUD

while the male sterilization is the least used method. Only 1 percent married men have opted for male sterilization.

There is lack of knowledge among the people and negative attitude towards Non Scalpel Vasectomy(NSV). Male participation in contraceptive use is negligible. In most of the cases the men make decisions that affect women’s health especially reproductive health.

There are plenty of opportunities for men to own up responsibilities for women’s health, right from opting for contraception such as NSV. The other crucial areas for engaging men are - shared decision making on family size, participation in contraceptive use, no gender based sex selection visà-vis preference of male child, men’s involvement in maternal care - antenatal care, care during delivery and postpartum care, men participating in rearing and caring of the child, responsible and safe sexual and reproductive health behaviour, partner treatment for Reproductive Tract Infections / STD considering women as equal partners and men’s active role in preventing gender based violence.

‘Men for Women’s Heath’

AIILSG launched a movement ‘Men for Women’s Heath’. The endeavor is to enable men to be more responsible for women’s Health. This movement aims to create sensitisation and awareness generation about contraception by men and promotion of NSV. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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COVER STORY

Dr Sudhir Krishna Former Secretary, Urban Development, Government of India

Urban Development

Need sturdy municipalities To make cities smarter and efficient, multiplicity of authorities should be converged into coherent arrangements. Municipalities need to be equipped with adequate decision making powers, manpower, and financial resources for enabling optimum services to the public

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ith the arrival of the New Year, policy makers should make resolutions for ensuring making cities smart measured in terms of better quality of infrastructure and services.

Smart cities should be efficient, green, inclusive, and safe. This would require enhanced coordination among the city planners, managers and developers.

Key issues for a city

The foremost issues for every city are waste management, water supply, traffic congestion, water logging and a responsive governance system. The root cause of the challenges faced by the cities is, primarily, absence of capable and unified leadership at local level. Strong municipalities are required now more than ever before, to be equipped with adequate decision making powers, financial resources and qualified staff, to function as the single point of contact for the citizens for getting the basic services.

Presently, enough technology options are available for smarter management of the city infrastructure and services. What we need is to have effective arrangements for selection of the most appropriate technology options like 24X7 water supply, zerolandfill for garbage management, sewage recycling systems and so on. Extensive exposure of the city planners and managers to the 14

January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

available technology options and the prevailing good practices would make adoption of the available innovative solutions faster and sustainable.

Needs for an organised city

A well organised city ideally will be one that is comfortable and safe to live in- for one and all, that is for the rich and the poor, the young and the old, men and women, the physically disabled and the have-nots of all other types. In specifics, 24X7 supply of safe water, recycling and reuse of all kinds of waste including sewage and solid waste with zero land fill, effective and efficient public transport systems, safe and comfortable walkways, adequate and scientific arrangements for flow of storm water reflected in zero water logging even during heavy rains, transparent, accessible and responsive pubic administration and pot holefree streets, would be the benchmark for a smart city.

We need to focus on better planning for the cities as a primary requirement for disaster proofing. For instance, the cities should have a drainage plan, so that rainfall does not cause flooding. The Development Control Regulations should ensure that the layout have adequate arrangements for movement of vehicles and people, to avoid traffic congestion during the disaster. The building bye-laws should be reviewed to ensure provisions for fire safety and earthquake proofing

VISION 2015

in the buildings. There should also be an arrangement to periodically inspect continued adherence to these provisions.

Cities should recycle all the wastesewage and solid waste- into useful materials, such as manure, fuel, water, etc. Solar lighting on all possible and viable roof tops could augment the grid supplies. Switch over from the conventional incandescent lights to LED lighting regulated by ICT based intelligent control systems would also provide substantial energy savings, besides better quality of lighting. The building bye-laws also need to be reviewed to incorporate provisions relating to energy efficiency in the built spaces.

Effective mobility required

Cities need to develop/augment public transport systems. While very large cities could go in for metrorailways, most other cities and towns should be facilitated to have bus based public transport systems. Alongside, the walkways need to be made safer, with adequate lighting and devoid of potholes and encroachments. Nonmotorised transport systems such as public bicycles should be promoted.

Management of transport systems for the city should be under a unified authority. Lastly, ICT based transport management systems need to be put into practice.

Solving hurdles

The traditional approaches for slum redevelopment have not succeeded, by and large. One of the main reasons for that is the inadequate public transport system in the cities, which forces the poorer sections of the society to live in informal settlements near the place of employment and of social services. Good public transport system that provides efficient and safe connectivity from end to end in a city would be the first requirement for sustainable housing, particularly for the weaker sections. Rental housing

could be an effective option for the weak and the poor, for whom having a safe and affordable shelter is more important than its ownership.

City planning should commence with a proper drainage plan, so that all the storm water is harnessed either into the surface water bodies or into the subsoil aquifers without causing any logging. Next in line should be the mobility plan, to provide for seamless multimodal transport system. Based on the backbone of the mobility plan, the other developments should be planned for strategic densification of the city on the principle of Transit Oriented Development (TOD).

Planning for the remaining sectors, such as water supply, sewage and solid waste management, economic and social activities etc. should follow the TOD framework.

Turning smart with ICT

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought in immense opportunities to introduce the ‘smart’ component into the development and management of infrastructure and services in citiesbe it the management of public transport, water supply, street lighting, waste management, policing and traffic management and so on.

The geo-spatial technology, in particular the ‘Bhuvan’ maps and the open source “Q-GIS” software developed by the Ministry of Urban Development and the National Remote Sensing Centre of the Department of Space, have made many of the GIS technology options very convenient to access and operate, besides being cost effective too.

To conclude, while the cost-effective technology options to develop smart cities are now available in adequate measures, the need is to equip the local governments, particularly the municipalities, with the required capacities to make the right choices and to put the same into practice. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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VISION 2015

Rajmohan Panda Senior Public Health, Specialist, PHFI

Health

Good Governance to tackle NCDs Improved urban health governance matters, it has been proved that best urban governance can increase life expectancy

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early one-third of India’s urban population or nearly 100 million live in slums which are characterized by overcrowding, poor hygiene and sanitation and the absence of proper civic services. While the characteristics of each city may vary by local context, common urban health and social challenges include: air pollution; rising levels of risk factors like tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol; road traffic injuries; inadequate infrastructure, transport facilities, poor solid waste management systems, and insufficient access to health facilities in slum areas. Our metros and other tier two cities have become cesspools of communicable diseases affecting the lives of millions. In addition, there is an onslaught of non-communicable diseases (NCD) and the threat of remerging and emerging diseases due to poor urban planning and infrastructure.

Burden of NCDs

In 2010, NCDs accounted for more disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in India than communicable diseases – nearly 235 million versus 222 million DALYs, respectively. A DALY 16

January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

represents one lost year of healthy life; economically, it is valued as equal to a country’s per-capita GDP (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation [IHME], 2013). The impact of NCDs is felt not just in reduced health, but also in lower productivity. NCDs are contributing to about two-third burden of diseases and more than half of adult deaths in India and these diseases are life style related disorders.

Many studies show that urban populations had higher prevalence of heart risk factors as compared to rural populations.

are more accessible. Women showed higher obesity prevalence than men.

The data from these studies point to a epidemic of NCDs that threaten significant populations in India particularly in urban areas. There is still a huge deficiency of health care structure in the urban areas. Although the urban health mission (now a part of the health mission) promises some solutions that limited resources and planning for the same do not seem to suggest that there is a great effort to combat the huge problem of the NCDs in the cities.

Sedentary lifestyle leading to disease

Good governance matters

Urban-rural discrepancies exist in physical activity, which appears to be declining more in India’s cities than in its rural regions. The difference in physical activity is further enhanced by the urban population’s reliance on public or private means of transportation rather than walking and by a rising scarcity of safe and secure open spaces like parks or pedestrian footpaths. This is both a consequences of rapid urban growth and poor urban planning. Other sedentary behaviours, such as watching television or playing video games, are more common in cities as well, where technological goods and services such as electricity

Several steps can be taken and a menu of choices along with an investment cost to it has been calculated in a recent report published by the World Economic Forum. Many of these recommendations are ignored by researchers as well as planners.

Improved urban health governance matters, in fact in developing countries like ours and it has been proven that the best urban governance can help produce 75 years or more of life expectancy. Good urban health governance helps ensure that opportunities and advantages are more evenly distributed, and that access to health care is fair and affordable.

COVER STORY

Siddharth Agarwal Executive Director, Urban Health Resource Centre

Health

Map slums for systematic health plan Urban health is multi-dimensional. To develop urban heal plan systematically, the government should hold a series of consultation with urban health stakeholders

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n India there is a lot of focus on developing smart cities. Parallel to it, the city managers should also ensure identification and plotting of unlisted slums/disadvantaged pockets on city maps so that proper healthcare, nutrition and sanitation reach the disadvantaged segments. It is crucial to remember that a large number of the urban work-force in semi-skilled and unskilled work comes from this section of society. Labours silently at allow wages are contributing to the prosperity and glitter of cities.

Develop a map for urban slums

It will be important for city administration of small cities to visit the nearby bigger city that has already developed a spatial map based city health plan and crystallize for

themselves the approaches that will be relevant for their city. A city map with details of all slum and poverty clusters, government health centres, hospitals, charitable health facilities, Anganwadi centers plotted on the city map is the starting point. Next step would be a series of consultations should be held with urban health stakeholders of their city including medical officers, municipal officers, ICDS functionaries, NGO representatives working in their cities, sanitary inspectors and elected ward representatives.

The government and private health sector should partner with civil society organisations and they should work for the disadvantaged urban dwellers to enhance reach of primary health care, health information; build strength and capacity of the urban poor community to demand services through women’s

Key urban health challenges ♦♦ Reach of healthcare including preventive, promotive health, hygiene ♦♦ Insufficient outreach services in slums/disadvantaged habitations ♦♦ Building social cohesion through community groups among the urban vulnerable ♦♦ Improving access to education, skill building among this segment ♦♦ Building bridges of enablement towards self-reliance for urban disenfranchised

health groups in slums and vulnerable pockets mandated in the National Urban Health Mission as “Mahila Arogya Samitis”. Training community work-force (mandated as Urban ASHA in Government’s National Urban Health Mission), and strengthening referral system from the slums to hospitals is necessary.

Regulating drug prices a must

The technology, tools, instruments and expertise exists. It is matter of how this reaches those who are not able to afford. There has been an effort to reduce cost of medication through generic drugs. The penetration of lowcost medicines (for ailments such as diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases, asthma and related lung conditions, cancer where treatment is long-term) needs to be enhanced. Outreach sessions in slums for early detection of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, cancer and counseling for life-style modifications to reduce risk should be initiated urgently and continued on a sustained basis. Life-style diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiac conditions are increasing in cities owing to higher use of junk food, less physical activity, higher levels of stress. There is a need to fom “health and well-being groups” at mohalla, locality level to promote simple doable messages for life-style modification and educate people to adopt healthy eating and life-style. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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VISION 2015

“When planning for city development then the first and foremost thing to do is laying down of drainage/water harvesting system before even constructing roads and buildings”

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Anil Sood President, CHETNA, Member, State Advisory Committee (DERC)

Urban Development

‘Plan for optimal urban development’ Cities must be divided in various zones. And, the zones should have all facilities in the neighborhood like schools, hospitals, play grounds, post offices, markets, etc. City zonal plans should be self sustaining to ensure optimal urban development

nplanned and arbitrary growth coupled with lack of infrastructure poses major challenges for cities. It has led our cities to a big urban conundrum which needs immediate solutions.

Lack of facilities, frequent changes in the plans , absence of reliable data about power, water requirement and sewage disposal, clogged drainage system, lack of water harvesting options, and missing public transport, parking are among the major problems our cities are facing today.

The city infrastructure has been developed without any planning for next 50 years. City planners must be professionally qualified and should not be bureaucrats. They must assess the optimum size of each city and accordingly plan for the resources.

Each city should be divided in various zones. The Zonal plan must be self sustaining. It should provide all facilities in the neighborhood like schools, hospitals, play grounds, parks, green areas, sports clubs, community centers, post offices, dedicated market areas, public transport and parking facilities, and other basic infrastructure.

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January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

Zonal plans should not be allowed to be flouted at any cost. All the authorities must act together in unison unlike today every authority acts independently and washes off its hands when there is a problem.

For example, Delhi Development Authority in Delhi demands affidavits from allottees of Co-operative Housing Societies that they would not demand water and electricity from the DDA. The DJB had refused to supply water to Vasant Kunj Shopping Mall complex in Vasant Kunj, Dwarka, Rohini as early as in 1984. The commercial buildings and government offices have been allowed to park vehicles on city roads.

Environmental Concerns

Indian cities are major contributors towards climate change as the forest cover is depleting at an alarming pace and the government authorities are not bothered. Cities must have inviolable green area and forest cover whether natural or developed.

While construction goes on the plantation also must be carried out in such a manner that as and when the construction is completed the grown up trees should be planted around that

area. The plan as I have said must be inviolable and sacrosanct with a vision of about 100 years ahead of times.

Delhi claims to have 7777 hectares of Ridge since 1962 but the geographical boundaries of the same are not known.

The Gram Sabha land has been acquired by the DDA for afforestation but has been commercially exploited.

The size and character of the city must be maintained and in no case the population growth should influence the further expansion of the city. The policy of indiscriminate change of land use and diversion of such land should be prohibited. Apart from this the storm water drains must be laid first before constructing roads and be connected with either water recharging pits or water bodies.

Alternative Energy

India is rich country in terms of sun shine and municipal/agricultural waste is available in abundance.

Therefore, both the resources can be used as source of energy and organic fertilizers that can invigorate the soil fertility thus eliminating use of insecticides and pesticides and also dependence on hydro, thermal or nuclear power.

COVER STORY

Raj Liberhan Former Director, India Habitat Centre

Urban Development

for bright urban future 2015 - will it be the year when the cities of India will become citizen friendly and liveable for individual excellence to prosper or will we continue on our downward slide, which has bruised the country’s landscape city after city

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ndian cities need oxygen.

Literally and figuratively speaking, because our cities are in fact dying every day.

We have for far too long allowed cities to grow on their own momentum, often chasing volumes rather than anticipating growth needs and regulating planning matrices. The corruption of the city managers, the land mafia and the developer-regulator nexus is not going to help improve the city one bit. Can our hopes for a better

20 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

city life be fulfilled- yes they can if we and start doing things right way from the beginning of the new year, 2015.

Municipalities attention

The only instrument of city governance is the Municipality. As an organisation with the constitutional backing no other body can anchor the ambitions of a city’s growth and prosperity. The politics of municipality has been somehow placed in an adversarial pattern to the state politics. There

is a perceived threat that the preeminence of the performing municipal executive will undermine the political profile of the state political executive and thus lead to its irrelevance in the hierarchy of citizens’ needs which lead to the decline of the political prospects of the state level politicians.

In short, the chief minister’s shine will be dimmed. Hence the travails of the municipal bodies have been replete with supersessions when manned by a different political ideology and

VISION 2015 a stingy support in financial and human resources when manned by a compatible political reflection. The point at issue is that this hostility in attitudes needs to end; otherwise we can all bid goodbye to any standard of city life.

Cadres service may help

The new year needs to see a major capacity upgrade of the municipal bodies. To create esteem in the psyche of the municipal employees, a well governed municipal service cadre needs to be created and they alone should man these local bodies. Indeed, their training, career aspirations will need to be built into the city management architecture with the first mandate to install a set of simple and compliable bye-laws in every area of municipal operation.

Every municipality has to be assigned a well-qualified financial team of professionals to revitalize the resource system. Supersession of a municipal body should be as difficult to sustain as the dismissal of an elected state government. The allocation of finances must be mandated through a State Finance Commission and the transfer of funds must come in a marked manner from the centre directly to the municipal body. These steps are fundamental to any forward movement.

Crafting waste management

It needs to be appreciated that cities that will survive the next ten years will be the cities that can manage their waste. We neglect this dimension at our own peril. Sadly, this is not getting the total attention it deserves today in almost all our cities except for small initiatives in different states and those too because of the single minded devotion of an executive there. Waste management is not simply a matter of collection and disposal. It involves building a whole set of working partnerships and the energy of the voluntary sector will need to be harnessed. It has been demonstrated successfully, but unless the core management is organised in

the municipal competence, initiatives will remain small and not scalable.

The health of our citizenship is dependent on the success of waste management practices, otherwise we can shave off at least five years from average life spans and the act of living itself will be fraught with misery. We need to couple the waste management architecture.

Cities still thirsty

There are no strict monitoring protocols for ensuring quality supply of drinking water. At any rate, none are followed. Even in our metropolises, the quality is below average world standards of health. Why? Primarily, we do not care and there is no one to seek compliance. The citizenship by and large remains grateful that at least there is availability. Our ground water levels are alarming in most cities and the state of its contents even more so. Only city planning and thorough knowledge of the geography can address this problem. Growth of the city has to be engineered to ensure that settlements are built around water sources or at least proximate to the sources.

Likewise for the power supply, only the municipality fully empowered and capacitated can navigate and guide growth. Yes, we know that the present state of the capacities of the local bodies is abysmal, but the capacity of the state governments is no better and urban issues are not on their horizons except to acquire land cheap under the disguise of public need, sell land at a high price and meet the financial deficits of the state exchequer. The citizen is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Proper urban transit link – a must

A competent public transport network is a must. Dependence on cars, scooters is dependence on fossil fuels.

Add to the shortage of power supply, which then comes through more fossil fuels consumption, the pollution levels in our cities is awful. Indeed, we need to connect the main city with its linkages so as to keep the pressure on

prices of housing stock down. For the same reason, the social infrastructure like colleges, schools, hospitals and cultural spaces must be dispersed throughout the linked settlements. In fact they should precede residential and office settlements. Tramways and electric buses are necessities and no longer last options because of costs.

We need to get the professionals who have anchored such projects, if necessary from the global pools. Our road engineering has been mediocre in every which way. Technically, and in execution as well, we have endangered lives on a daily basis in every city and on the highways. Despite, laws restricting location of settlements alongside the highways, we allowed this to happen and discounting safety of the users. We need a fresh start and let us not trivialize it.

No more quick fix and half solutions

We cannot underestimate the magnitude of the tasks ahead.

There are any number of studies in government shelves giving varying figures of money needed but if we have remote ambitions of initiating, regulating and pacing urban development, we have to work the whole gamut of tasks and address them together, holistically. It is politically very tempting to sloganize urban developments and promise them on the near horizon, but quick fixes and half solutions will be even more disastrous. Yes, technology can help us plan, help us manage and help us sustain initiatives but humans have to coordinate the different thrusts in the right direction.

As per Adam Greenfield, a fellow at LSE Cities, puts the investment needed for smart cities at $114 Billion over twenty years as per some estimates. The ‘smartness’ will come if the city life promises safe environment for children and citizens, cultural spaces, economic opportunities to pursue and a climate for individuals to excel. We can start 2015, beginning to believe that our cities will anchor such a dream and then making it happen. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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Avikal Somvanshi Senior Research Associate, Sustainable Buildings and Habitat Programme, Centre for Science and Environment

Environment

Solutions for urban conundrum Today everything is a challenge in our cities. All the services such as housing, water, waste, energy are in state of rut. Even air we breathe is hazardous to say the least

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ndian cities fall apart every monsoon which is an annual phenomena, this fact should be a good indicator of our climate change preparedness. Need of the hour is to in built the climate change adaption measures within our basic infrastructure development and renewal programme.

Prudent, optimised and efficient resources consumption with reduced waste will be needed to make cities self-sufficient. Initial focus should be getting the urban planning and design correct.

Indian cities have been failed by their planners, engineers and governments and their collective desire to copy London, Tokyo or New York. A new measure of liveability is required for Indian situation, where the cost of growth is unaffordable for most. We have already inherited compact, walkto-work, mixed-use, high density and resource efficient urban form which western cities are now recognising as sustainable urbanism and trying to achieve. All we need to do is build on our strength and apply appropriate technology to provide modern conveniences.

To ensure energy efficiency in cities, roof-top solar seems promising but let’s be realistic, the quantum of energy being used in buildings now will be difficult to met just by roof-top solar or even off-site farms. Energy demand is going to insatiable and will be directly related to our increasing dependence on electronic and electrical gadgets for our daily chores.

We need to cut down dependence on mechanical systems by constructing buildings which are well insulated and get day-light, and then move to super-efficient appliances to further reduce our energy foot-print. Smaller the demand less will be the need to generate and in utopian scenario cities with small enough energy demand will be able to generate it via green means, unless there is some 22 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

major breakthrough in green power sector.

Innovation

Market is flush with innovative technologies and brilliant professionals who can help improve the cities. But the issue staring us in face is how to decide what works for a particular city. We need to be smart about these technologies and innovations, for example we know our cities do not have underground sewerage to speak of and we also know our cities have been using septic tanks or open drains for sewage management.

A very un-smart thing to do would be to fall into the trap of civil engineers to build sewerage network. So can we get technology to treat sewage in these septic tanks and channels instead of getting a technology to drill sewerage lines? Same way we need effective governance at city level which has the mandate and means to implement these innovations.

Sustainable Buildings

I would like to see sustainable buildings becoming more performance oriented than design oriented.

It is well established science what building design needs to be in order to be sustainable and it is claimed that millions of square feet is already sustainably built in India.

As for cities, sustainable buildings are the key to their own sustainability. Cities are nothing but collection of buildings if one talks in simplistic terms, and all the resource demand on the cities are commutative of demands of individual buildings be it water, energy, sewage, garbage or mobility.

If buildings conserve and consume less water and energy then city would have to procure less and would be able to provide better if not 24x7 services to every citizen. Same goes for waste, if none is generated none need to go to landfill.

VISION 2015

Dr Priya Balasubramaniam-Kakkar Senior Public Health Scientist, Public Health Foundation of India

Health

Why healthy cities matter Existing and future cities needs holistic approach on urban health environment, as the changing urban migratory demographics have surged infectious diseases

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ities attract a surging tide of people with hopes for a better life and ambitions for their children to have a future with more choices. By mid2015 (the final year of the Millennium Development Goals), there will be 63 cities with populations of over a million with an increasing number of small and medium size towns morphing into urban centres.

Population influx and urban health

While India’s cities are vibrant sources of creativity, technology and resilient engines for economic revival, they are also sources of poverty, inequality, and environmental health hazards. India’s urbanization is driven by rural to urban migration and spatial reclassification of cities. These trends, impact the health of urban residents, making them vulnerable to multiple burdens of poor health.

Changing urban migratory demographics have caused an ever increasing overlap of human, livestock and wildlife populations resulting in a surge in infectious diseases of animal origins. While infections like TB, HIV and malaria still demand our attention, new emerging infections are posing fresh threats to urban health and security.

Urbanites turning obesogenic

Urban areas have also advanced farther along epidemiological transitions and constitute obesogenic environments encouraging unhealthy lifestyles (including low levels of physical activity, unhealthy eating habits, and tobacco use) that increases risk for chronic, non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease. Finally, urban residents are vulnerable to intentional and unintentional injuries caused by road traffic accidents, occupational hazards, competitive work pressures and crime adding to

high levels of mental stress in urban environments.

Digital solution for healthy life

Information technology industry has various medical devices innovation and hospital information systems. For example, the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is currently piloting the Swasthya Slate, a digital tablet operable by urban and rural frontline workers that can perform 133 medical diagnostic tests at the field level. Another PHFI collaboration around infectious disease tracking is through BioDiaspora is a web-based enterprise solution developed in Toronto, Canada that integrates live streams of global epidemic data from worldwide infectious disease surveillance systems and contextualizes disease threats by integrating various datasets pertaining to human and animal populations, climate, and health system environments.

Proper urban planning needed

The current Ebola outbreak in Western-Africa is a potent reminder that weak health systems capacity is a challenge that transcends national boundaries. For cities to sustain and prosper economically, future urban planning will require greater investment in creating coordinated urban health systems by reviving the urban public health sector The government’s initiative to reorient the National Rural Health Mission to the National Health Mission includes urban health, is a welcome move. However, it is important that the move should not stagnate and go the route of the long proposed National Urban Health Mission. India’s cities should address health concerns through strengthening the public health capacity of urban local bodies, promoting inter-sectoral public health activities related to sanitation, provision of safe water, and vector control. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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VISION 2015

Kulwant Singh Regional Adviser, Regional Advisor, UN-HABITAT

Urban Development

For Smart, Sustainable Cities

Cities should provide spaces for all segments and age groups of the population to partake in social and cultural expressions

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ndia is the second most populous country with a total population of 1.21 billion. India’s urban population is expected to more than double, growing from 286 million in 2001 to 600 million by 2031. The Census of India 2011 has placed India’s urban population at 377 million, representing 31.16 percent of the total population. It is further estimated to increase to about 800 million by the middle of the 21st Century.

India will thus make a historic transition from a largely rural and agrarian society to one that is predominantly urban. Nearly two-thirds of India’s economic output already comes from urban areas.

Indian cities have been the main contributors to the economic growth with urban-based economic activities accounting for up to 65 percent of the gross national product.

This will be more than just an economic transition: it will result in the transformation of Indian society, its culture, its politics, and the country’s natural and built environment. At the same time, it will also place an enormous strain on existing urban centres and the many new ones that will come into existence.

According to the New Climate Economy report by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, “India is on the brink of an urban revolution. The current pattern of urbanisation is largely taking place on the fringe of cities, much of it unplanned and outside the purview of city codes and bye laws, and is already imposing high costs. Unprecedented growth is leaving municipal governments with critical infrastructure shortages and service gaps”.

Recent estimates show that the cost of environmental degradation, largely driven by sprawling cities, is “enormous” and is reducing India’s GDP (gross domestic product) by 5.7 percent or about $80 billion annually. “Some 44 percent of India’s rapidly growing carbon emissions have 24 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

urban origins, emanating from transport, industry, buildings and waste.

Challenges of Cities

Cities house over 31 percent of India’s population.

Buildings alone contribute to 40 percent of total GHG emissions from Indian cities. Municipal services such as street lighting and water pumping systems are burdened with outdated and energyguzzling equipment. Urban mobility is poorly planned and regulated and spatial planning has failed to contain urban sprawl. Medium sized towns in India are major contributors to the 31percent decadal growth rate of urban population and thus an appropriate site for planned intervention.

With a fourth of India residing in urban slums, urban infrastructure cannot keep pace with usage; half of all urban areas do not have sewage treatment facilities and only six percent of cities and towns have a public transport system. In a rapidly urbanising India, there is a need to have energyefficient cities.

Climate change has partly been accelerated by exponential and energy-intensive urban growth.

There is a paucity of home grown and effective mechanisms for low carbon growth. There is over dependence on fossil fuels that produce negative environmental externalities like air pollution, which further reduce the chances of robust mitigation strategies.

Cities in India need to reduce energy intensity, enhance energy security and deploy innovative technologies for producing clean and green energy.

Such initiatives would be possible only if there is integration across sectors that presently work in isolation and produce barriers to achieving results.

There are capacity constraints across the urban sector, most critically in the municipalities.

Municipalities do not have adequate staff with appropriate skills. Municipal staff is also

VISION 2015 overburdened to handle routine tasks of managing urban services.

Energy efficiency is neither a priority nor an area where expertise can be demonstrated. State-run power utilities are also reluctant to cede control of power management to the municipalities. The inadequate devolution of powers to the municipalities also deprives them of regulatory functions that is necessary for enhancing energy efficiency in buildings and use of renewable energy in transportation. Lack of expertise and funds for waste management prevent the development of waste to energy projects.

Vision for Urban Future

We need our cities to be regenerative.

Our cities should be designed to be resilient by being energy efficient, low-carbon, and increasingly reliant on renewable energy sources. Our cities should replenish the resources they consume, recycle, and reuse all the waste. The cities should be planned and designed in a manner that they use water, land, and energy in a coordinated manner and in harmony with its surrounding hinterland in support of urban and peri-urban agriculture.

We need our cities to be economically vibrant and inclusive.

The cities should encourage and foster local economic development from the smallest entrepreneur to the largest corporations; should provide a one-stop shop for streamlined licensing and other administrative services; should recognize and protect the specific needs of the informal sector of the economy in its economic development policies and strategies.

Our cities should have a singular identity and sense of place. They should recognize culture as key to human dignity and to sustainability.

The cities should involve cultural actors to unlock the creative potential of all citizens. A city should strengthen the bonds between city and its surrounding hinterland.

Our city planners and city managers have to work for making our cities socially inclusive. Any metropolis should provide spaces for all segments and age groups of the population to partake in social and cultural expressions. They should eliminate all physical and spatial forms of segregation and exclusion.

We need to plan our cities in a manner such that our cities are walkable, and transit-friendly. Possibly schools should be within walking or biking distance from homes. Offices need to be located no farther than a few transit stops away from homes.

Shopping for daily necessities should also be within walking distance of residential buildings and located near transit stops. Open space for recreation should also be near schools, work, and home.

We need our cities to be safe. They should be welcoming night and day, inviting all people to use the streets, parks, and transit without fear. Public officials - the police, the fire department, and health, welfare, transit, and environmental services - and neighborhood residents and community groups should communicate frequently and speak with one voice.

The cities’ parks and gardens are havens of peace and tranquility and harbor local flora and fauna and biodiversity. All public and private entities providing public services (water, waste, energy, transport) need to work together with the city’s residents and have public and environmental health as a common performance indicator.

Most importantly our cities should be affordable and equitable. Land, infrastructure, housing, and basic services should be planned with low income groups in mind. Public services should be planned together with the communities they serve and consciously include the needs of women, youth, and vulnerable populations. The cities in India should be managed at the metropolitan level. The metropolitan structure should coordinate sectoral policies and actions (economy, mobility, biodiversity, energy, water and waste) within a comprehensive and coherent local framework. Communities and neighbourhoods should be active participants in metropolitan decision making. Roles and responsibilities between all stakeholders, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity should be clearly defined with resources allocated strategically, justly, and around a common agenda.

In sum, the cities we need in India have to be socially inclusive, wellplanned, regenerative and resilient, and prosperous. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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VISION 2015

UN Habitat

Principles for Smart City UN-Habitat has been promoting the principles for sustainable urban development and new technologies to achieve competitiveness, sustainability and improve the quality of life of citizens. It recommends urban planning methods and systems to address current urbanization challenges such as population growth, urban sprawl, biodiversity, urban mobility and energy. It is also promoting its vision at the national, regional and metropolitan scales to achieve better integrated and connected cities which are socially inclusive and resilient to climate change.

It has developed a Smart City Vision based on the 21st Century Urban Model. This vision is translated into various principles for sustainable development of cities and neighbourhoods. The main objectives are to promote compactness and maximize land efficiency, to promote sustainable, to encourage walkable neighborhoods, to foster employment and local consumption and to provide a diversity of housing options.

High Quality of Streets and Public Space

The Smart City promotes a street network that not only works for vehicles and public transport but also specifically aims to attract pedestrians and cyclists. The principle entails: ♦♦ 50 percent of the land should be used for public space. Of this, 30 percent should be allocated to streets and 20 percent to squares, parks and open spaces. ♦♦ At least 18 km of street length per square kilometer ♦♦ At least 80 crossings per square km are required in order to build a well connected grid in cities the government is planning 26 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

Mixed Urban Uses and limited land-use specialization

This principle is aimed at developing a range of compatible activities and land uses close together in appropriate locations and flexible enough to adapt over time to the changing market. In order to achieve this, the principle entails: ♦♦ Avoid zoning and avoid dividing neighborhoods by highways or hard infrastructures ♦♦ At least 40 percent of floor space allocated to economic uses in any neighborhood ♦♦ Single use blocks should cover less then 10 percent of any neighbourhood

Connectivity

This principle proposes a grid and a hierarchy of streets with arterial and secondary roads that are well connected through intersections.

This principle encourages: walking distances, public transport, ICTaccessibility

Mixed social structure

This principle aims at promoting cohesion and interaction between different social classes in the same community and to ensure accessibility to equitable urban opportunities by providing different types of housing.

This principle entails: ♦♦ Spatially combined rental and ownership property models ♦♦ a range of different rent levels to achieve integration and disseminate cosmopolitan values ♦♦ dedicate 20-50 percent of residential space for low and affordable income residents

Urban Resilience

Resilience recognizes the role of cities in Climate Change Mitigation and

Adaptation, Disaster Preparedness and Natural Resources Management This principle entails: ♦♦ Reduction of GHG emission ♦♦ Assessment of high risk areas inside settlements ♦♦ Disaster preparedness strategies

Energy and Resource Efficiency

By using resources on a sustainable manner, cities will minimize impacts on the environment, creating more with less and delivering greater value with less input. This principle entails energy efficiency in sectorial policies, promotion of renewable energies, resource management and preservation strategies and ecycle, reuse, reduce and closed loop cycle strategies

Practical and enforceable norms and rules

It is critical to provide policies, plans, norms and rules that respond to the current needs of municipalities and that at the same time are flexible enough to accommodate the possible different growth scenarios of urban areas.

Smart Planned City Extensions

One key methodology developed

by UN-Habitat to accommodate rapid growth in cities is the Planned City Extension. The methodology addresses sustainable urban growth at a required scale including the provision of sufficient public space, resilience and at the same time buildable plots to unleash the housing process. The benefits of this approach include economic agglomeration advantages, including lower infrastructure; reduced mobility demand and increased social heterogeneity as a result of mixed land use.

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COVER STORY

Ashok Jain Director and Strategist, Terracon Ecotech Pvt Ltd

Environment

Build green infra too Around 70 percent of global population will live in cities by 2050 and there is going to be a increasing pressure on urban planners to accommodate people in cities and provide basic infrastructure

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ity managers and urban developers are the custodians of cities for its growth, maintenance and for harnessing cities’s future potential by providing adequate infrastructure and amenities without compromising on the quality of life of inhabitants. They are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring sustainability of cities by planning and managing city’s hard and soft infrastructure.

It is expected that the 70 percent of global population will live in cities by 2050. Urban planners will be entrusted with the responsibility to accommodate people in cities and provide them basic infrastructure. While adequate attention is paid to hard infrastructure such as water, solid waste management and sewage treatment, road, transportation, etc., soft infrastructure or green infrastructure gets ignored very often.

Urban centres of human settlements all over the world are facing various problems dealing with

URBAN CHALLENGES

Cities globally are facing the problems of Urban Sprawl, resulting in massive pressure on the physical infrastructure. Low Carbon City framework can position themselves as low carbon cities by designing a framework to exploit natural areas and features to reduce average temperature of cities, generation and use of renewable energy, Sustainable City framework will rely heavily on lesser dependence on natural resources and increased recycling / reuse, reducing carbon and water intensity, managing waste and increasing the green cover of cities to encourage.

28 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

health, sanitation, infrastructure, education and the environment. Most of these problems come down to how we tackle the environment and plan for the future. Urban Planning needs to be given more attention to overcome these problems. In terms of the environment, cities need to increase green space that can directly impact health, biodiversity in and around cities need to be analysed, green wealth needs to be mapped and an inventory needs to be made and environmental assessments need to constantly be conducted.

There is a need to promote the use of various alternative sources of energy that can make cities self-efficient such as solar water heaters, solar panels, rooftop wind turbines, plants that convert degradable solid waste into energy and manure, etc. Individuals can take it upon themselves to make responsible decisions and implement such technologies; the government should encourage more of this.

Small cities and town need to gear up for better urban planning, use of technologies such as GIS, increased open / green spaces and tree cover, low carbon infrastructure, providing conducive habitats for improved urban biodiversity and ecosystem, generation, etc.

Disaster Management

Indian cities are not prepared for disasters looming large due to climate change. The first step that needs to be taken is that the government needs to pay more heed to sustainable development by first understanding current scenarios and then moving forward. Pollution levels need to be recorded, waste management needs to be improved, biodiversity should be assessed, cyclone and storm mitigation should be planned for coastal cities, these are some of the initial steps that need to be taken.

VISION 2015

Ravi Chauhan Managing Director, SAP India Urban Life & Technology

From city to a brand Cities are becoming an identity by themselves and evolving new concepts of life, work and recreation

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he world is profoundly changing, and it’s up to city officials, businesses, and citizens alike to make positive urban change happen.

The focus on urban cities has never been so intense. It is just a matter of time when cities will emerge and establish themselves as independent brands and identities. This has also resulted in intense competition to attract investments, associated employment opportunities, comforts and benefits.

Cities today are vying with one another to present itself as a BestRun City—one that is Efficient, Predictable & Sustainable. To achieve this, it is important to build a strong foundational layer. A layer that is defined by efficient data collection, its storage in the most intelligent manner, one that enables easy retrieval and access to the concerned city officials, agencies and departments in a controlled manner to ensure data security and privacy norms are maintained.

Administrator’s and government officials of these cities have to make decisions on matter of great importance and to be able to do that correctly they need to access information. They need reliable data which has to be data driven in order to make correct decisions quickly.

There is no other way but to depend on technology to give one that information on the basis of which one can make these correct decisions.

It’s imperative that the only way you can live up to this promise and to this whole mantra or philosophy of minimum government and maximum governance is to leverage technology.

The core aspect of a new age smart city is its ability to monitor and measure what it manages, to bring about efficiencies in its processes, and improvements in its productivity.

Our company has been working with city councils, municipalities, urban administration agencies across the globe in helping them achieve these objectives. Recently, Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC), has implemented

Cities worldwide vying to be better than the rest.

Citizens too wear the pride of their cities on their sleeves.

our solutions to automate and centralise public service offerings.

Civic Services on the go

By 2030, 60 percent of the world’s population will live in urban regions.

This will mean great challenges for cities, the local economies, and the citizens. Shrinking budgets will need to meet ever-increasing demands.

Transport routes will need to become as efficient and short as possible, so that supply-to-production and the supply of goods are optimal. And – what is more – questions about security and about living a sustainable lifestyle will need to be addressed constantly.

In addition, cities must face up to a new understanding of community action: Citizens want to help shape their city and have a say in decisions that affect their environment.

The increasing proliferation of Internet-enabled smart phones allows cities and municipalities to rethink their existing information and communication approaches and to tackle the imminent challenges constructively. By using mobile technologies, it becomes possible to innovatively shape interaction between cities, municipalities, companies, voluntary organisations, associations, and citizens – and thus to increase general life satisfaction and local economic growth.

The city app concept focuses on the citizen with his or her wishes, interests, and needs. They experience the new services through a city app on their smart phone. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

29

VISION 2015

Karuna Gopal President, Foundation for Futuristic Cities

Digital Cities

Data to BE VITAL in future cities Digital cities will value and respect data. ‘Urban Informatics’ will be the backbone of such cities. Life will be predictable and there will be a better sense of control

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he 100 smart cities project of the Government of India is aspirational.

It is just not a fad. It is in fact conceived to enhance the quality of the life in our Metros and create better economic opportunities to India through planned and smart urbanisation. Low cost housing, smart healthcare, universal design principals, inclusion of the marginalised urban poor is also a part of the plan.

Our cities should quickly embrace innovations that exist around the country and around the world

30 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

– there are many ‘product and process innovations’ that can be scaled out. Some of our Indian cities have innovated constantly like tech innovations in citizen services like E-Seva and M-health. They have to be scaled out to other cities and small towns.

The world has thousands of cheap innovations in products – water storage and conservation, sanitation, pothole protection, etc.

A smart city is nothing but a city that is efficient, liveable and sustainable. Today India is talking about Intelligent Transportation, Smart Grids,

VISION 2015 Control and Command centers like those in Rio de j’nairo and Barcelona.

Cities like Surat, Delhi have already command centers. Many other cities are planning them. These centers deal with “real time data” that is captured by satellites for weather, cameras for crime and traffic violation, etc. India is keen on predictive policing and surveillance enabled safety corridors, we’re talking about Wi-Fi zones and Cities on Cloud.

Way Ahead

This wish list needs high-bandwidth ubiquitous Internet connectivity.

We need Cloud-Computing as a service and ‘Smart Devices ‘primarily designed for accessing services from the cloud via a Wi-Fi or 3G network.

We should have collaboration platforms for integrating discrete technologies. Open Standards, open access to public data (India threw open its public data a few months ago) Video surveillance /Image processing / Face & Gesture recognition software and most importantly human capital to analyze this Big Data generated by smart infrastructure.

Smart Cities are widely viewed as the perfect solution for poverty alleviation, job creation & inclusive growth. A Smart City leverages ICT for inclusive growth, uses leadingedge technology to deliver new value-added services to its citizens to improve their quality of life.

Isolated but important smart efforts in Smart grids, Smart transportation, Smart water supply and smart built environment have to be initiated.

Many POCs (proof of concept) and use cases have to be built using Public Data. Big Data competencies have to be developed.

Technologies that tools around Big Data and Cloud computing will usher the era of a smart India. The “Comparative Study of Smart Cities in Europe and China” report explores in some detail the technologies that are both driving the increasing supply of urban data and those that are enabling opportunities from the data to be realised to generate innovative

smart city services namely broadband connectivity, Internet of Things/ Internet of Everything, Smart personal devices, Cloud computing, Big data analytics, etc.

The existing barriers to smart city and sustainable community developments are Inertia, conservatism, or resistance to change, a lack of clarity and consensus of what a smart city is really about, its socio-economic benefits, lacking of integrated national and urban planning, funding for investment, access to capital, public procurement rules, missing smart city strategic thinking, and absence of Future City R&D Centers.

I think the most important barrier is government not being proactive – Fortunately in India we have an ambitious government.

Today governments, particularly in East Asia, are supporting smart city pilots and positioning their industrial champions at the heart of the smart city agenda, with the intention of generating a ‘smart infrastructure’ export market.

Digital India

Digital India project, with an overlay of one lakh crore rupees, envisages providing digital infrastructure as a utility to every individual, delivering governance and services on demand and enabling the digital empowerment of citizens. The primary objective of the project is to make broadband facility available in every village across the country. Focused areas include improving broadband connectivity, boosting electronics manufacturing, promoting e-governance, and capacity building of citizens and government employees for better service delivery.

Everything is possible if there is a vision. Didn’t we see E-Choupal taking off in villages? Are we not seeing call centers from villages doing well?

As broadband networks and cloud computing are key components of smart cities, government policies towards the legal and regulatory framework for the development of this infrastructure may also help to

support the growth of smart cities.

India should move towards “Cities on Cloud” and adopt technological innovations based on Big Data that will help in improving urban living standards.

Smart Solutions for day-to-day problems in a digital city ♦♦

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Smart traffic systems which use data from sensors to proactively reroute traffic to avoid congestion and maximise road utilisation.

Smart grid technology which enables end users to be more efficient with their energy uses, and allows utility companies to proactively identify and repair energy or water leakage.

Public safety and security systems that measure real-time people movement that can be used to alert police or transport networks.

Smart health solutions which remotely monitor chronically ill patients so they can remain longer at home and reduce the pressure on resource-constraint public hospitals.

Smart learning solutions such as virtual classrooms and new learning environments that improve student outcomes, increase efficiency, enhance safety and security.

Most of the services developed to date are focused on smart energy or environmental and transport projects as Municipal governments are using ICT as an enabler Use energy more efficiently both to reduce their costs and to improve the environment both directly through lower pollution and indirectly through lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Encourage the use of public transport by providing sufficient buses, trains and Mass Rapid Transport systems. It will reduce the number of private vehicles on the road, and reduces the travel time of citizens to their places of work from homes. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

31

COVER STORY

Ranjan K Panda Water and Climate Change Expert and Convener, Combat Climate Change Network

Urban Ecology

make cities eco-sensitive The new India lives in its cities, at the cost of the villages of the country and its own ecology. Cities have to grow in harmony for a sustainable future

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he Census 2011 revealed a unique indication of our growth which perfects India’s image as that of a radically growing urban country.

A history was created as the urban population’s decadal growth rate for 2001-11 was more than near to two and half times than that of the same of the rural population.

A defining moment was achieved and modern India’s foundation has been laid in its urban spaces.

Soon, in about one and half decade, near to half of the country would be living in the cities creating yet another milestone. By 2030, India would have thus achieved the status of an urban nation.

What worries one is the growth of urban poverty; in terms of growth of the people living in slums and without basic facilities, and of course the ecological poverty. Slum population in most cities of the country have been growing faster than the nonslum population, with almost double the overall growth rate compared to the urban population.

Urbanisation has not meant development.

Consider the drinking water coverage by individual connections and only about 70 percent of urban Indians have it compared to 91 percent in China, 86 percent in South Africa and 80 percent in Brazil.

Further, the quality of the water supplied is poor and tests/treatments done are unreliable. Even if we believe the treatments, only about 60 percent of the people who have a piped connection, to get some treated water. In urban areas, if you are rich and capable to install your own treatment facilities you are sure – to some extent – that you are drinking safe water.

Toilets are no green stories in our cities either with near about 20 percent population having no toilets in their premises. And remember, these are all average figures for all the cities. In the slum areas, where the cities are growing the more, the statistics 32 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

are scary. Then cities are the greatest polluters. Near about 80 percent of sewage is officially untreated and disposed of in rivers, lakes and groundwater.

The real figure could be much more. Cities have killed our rivers the most, by discharging pollutants, encroaching their geographies including flood plans and building dams – hundreds of kilometres away – to fetch drinking water for their habitats.

Cities as we can see at the moment are the most pampered and spoilt child of the governments. Can we sustain such cities? No. Urban planners should be strict in enforcing greenery as against their current obsession of ‘concrete’ jungles. Each city must have and enact plans to protect forests & bio-reserves, water bodies, rivers and play grounds. Constructions in the cities should integrate green energy components that promote energy austerity and conservation both.

The urban community should not be considered just as ‘consumers’ but as ‘citizens’. Limiting their roles to payment of service charges does not augur well for the concept of ‘good urban governance’ which needs active citizen’s participation from planning to implementation to monitoring the growth of cities.

Another very important aspect that I keep on harping in my writings and campaigns is the great bank of traditional knowledge systems that migrate into the cities along with the rural communities who come and settle here. The rural India is traditionally rich in managing natural resources. If we lose the generation which still comes from that background of living directly and closely with jungles and rivers; we will lose out on a ‘sustainable future’ we keep planning. City planning must, I repeat must, take on board the knowledge and practices of these immigrants.

Cities have to be green and equitable to be smart.

That will also make them climate resilient.

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COVER STORY

Seema Singh Research Associate, TERI

ICT Infra

relook at city planning, management Cities in India urbanising like never before. ICT can prove extremely helpful in managing and planning urban areas based on real time data

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he new government’s ambitious ‘100 smart cities’ project has caught significant attention. The concept note released by the MoUD places use of ICT central to city planning and management.

It is therefore important that the techno centric smart city ideology should not be directly adopted from the developed world. It should be contextualised for Indian cities based on the city specific needs and applicability of various innovative technologies in service delivery and city management.

Technology and innovation can undeniably play an important role in providing solutions to deal with problems related to human settlements across sectors. ICT through its highly technology based specialized solutions like smart grids, smart metering, e governance, intelligent transport systems, etc. establishes an integrated platform where information or data from multiple sectors can be generated, stored, shared and analyzed.

Moving towards smart cities would entail a shift from single function to multifunctional infrastructure i.e. unlike our earlier isolated approach of solving one problem at a time; the highly networked ICT enabled infrastructure will provide a multifunctional dimension to the city infrastructure serving multiple interests. For instance, in the case of 34 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

urban waste water, our traditional approach has been to collect and drive away the waste water and solid waste collected from our cities to far away locations.

Integrated city management

First and foremost, the cities need to put required infrastructure and systems in place. The capital infrastructure would require huge inflow of funds and therefore it is important to estimate the overall funds required and identify the possible sources of funding right at the onset.

Presently, Indian cities completely lack integrated city management systems with real time information available related to energy demand, consumption or emissions. The developments being targeted under smart cities program being mostly Brownfield developments, our cities will first need to accurately map their present condition and plan ahead.

Once developed, the ICT enabled integrated infrastructure in our cities will not only incorporate an integrated city level database management system that uses innovative technologies to simultaneously collect, process and analyze data related to city municipal services, land use, transport, energy, socio economic structure, etc but also an integrated decision making system that encourages and enables holistic, timely and informed decision making.

Capacity Building

The complex data collected/ generated by the systems will need to be analyzed and monitored by the city officials and managers. Therefore, it becomes important to develop the capability of the city officials to interpret and monitor such data in all its complexity and use it in a way that promotes resource efficiency, energy efficiency, environmental and financial sustainability and collectively drive us on the path of smarter growth.

For instance, there are examples wherein GPS has been installed in public transport buses and auto rickshaws in Delhi, but due to limited capacity of the authorities; the systems have not helped much in improving the efficiency and overall public transportation situation.

The citizens will be the ones ultimately using these highly developed city systems. Therefore, it is important that the citizens are ready to adapt to these systems and use them efficiently and effectively.

The smart city movement provides a wide array of opportunities for the existing as well as future cities in India. It is important that our cities are much more prepared both technically as well as attitudinally. In parallel to developing infrastructure, extensive capacity building and sensitization of the officials and citizens, thus attains paramount importance as we set onto the agenda of developing 100 smart cities in India.

VISION 2015

Rohan Gupta COO, ATTERO

e-Waste

Scientific disposal of e-Waste needed E-waste is becoming a big threat. How do we ensure safe disposal of eWaste so that the City doesn’t become a dumping ground. Though, Delhi is not the leading generator, but it is a leading processing centre of eWaste in the country

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he unscientific disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products (WEEE) is an environmental and health hazard that a proper streamline of the same as been largely neglected across the country. These products are either dumped in landfills or incinerated after valuable components are extracted in an improper manner using crude, primitive and polluting techniques.

Cities like Delhi and Bangalore have emerged as one of the largest e-Waste dumping sites of the world. Not only are these cities crumbling under the pressure of e-Waste generated on their home turf but are also dealing with e-Waste imports from other nations. According to a study conducted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) our capital city will be home to approximately 85 percent of the developed world’s e-Waste. The Delhi-

NCR region is predicted to become the e-Waste dumping capital by 2015, as reported in a study by ASSOCHAM. The only way to deter the transformation of our cities into big e-Waste dumping grounds is by having an effective and environmentally responsible eWaste management system in place to tackle the existing waste as well as making provisions for the future e-Waste production. The development of smart cities offers an opportunity to create sustainable cities that would not compromise on environment and health. These envisioned cities that would rely heavily on automation and digitalisation for social development, could also use technology to ensure responsible e-Waste disposal.

Attero, one of the India’s largest electronic asset management company, a NASA recognised technology innovator, understands the Indian waste management system is heavily dependent on the last mile collectors i.e. kabbadiwallahs to discard all sorts of waste. It has incorporated the informal sector by providing them training and knowledge to handle e-Waste in a proper manner and using their collection network for collection of e-Waste from consumers. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

35

Chandrashekar Hariharan Executive Chairman and Co-founder of BCIL ZED Homes

Urban Liveablity

Lets make it livable Cities are not about being resilient; they are about being liveable; to make them so we need to take teachings of good managers within city administration

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he government needs to focus on administration and move towards introducing a mantle of management with training for existing officers in a way that there are no cultural incompatibilities between the administrators and the managers.

Need for management essential

The bureaucracy only ‘administrates’, thanks to a system that only protects the hierarchy and has the government not ‘doing’, but only ‘conferring contracts’. Ownership for doing never lies with the government. Therefore there is the need for management among city administrations.

If we talk about urban developers, we should see both the government as well as the private sector. For over 60 years, that it is the private sector’s initiatives that have changed and shaped the markets -- from the IT sector’s revolution of the 90s, to the textile revolution that came in the 70’s and 80’s. It has always been the private sector guiding the economy’s course despite constraints and limitations that the government imposes, and crippling taxes that come on as soon as any sector becomes profitable.

Despite these, the private sector has continued to achieve success.

Suppressing the spirit of human endeavour has been characteristic of the social-democratic model that India chose. The dismantling of some of the economy’s commanding heights 36 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

over the last 20 years has helped but only little, for the government’s administrators as well as the politicians continue to nurture those crippling structures which keep the private sector from being unshackled.

No one argues for full privatisation but without good governance and only the mask of administration is a half way house.

Cities like Hong Kong, Barcelona, Curitiba, Phnom Penh, are examples of how good governance came in because of good managers within city administration. The Philadelphia plan called the Green Infrastructure Plan 2025 is part of such processes that managers in the city have brought in, and not administrators.

At the vision level (Singapore writes its vision statement very simply: a city within a garden and not a garden within a city), urban India can devolve such directions through the urban local bodies of every city which have to clearly recognize the five key city challenges -- Food, Energy, Water, Waste. It essentially means that our cities have to get as sustainable as they can get on the need for these vital resources.

Food: How can we get our cities to see that 30 percent of the food that they need in terms of both meats and vegetables are secured from rooftop harvesting, harvesting in parks and other public spaces? A city like Bangalore alone has about 1000 such acres of lands which are not parks but

are within the control of the BBMP. These can be put to good use with citizen and farmer initiatives.

Energy: How can we get all homes, like in Adelaide, to generate at least 40 per cent of its power through solar systems? If you are energy-positive, you can sell to the grid in Karnataka and a few other states in India today. It means that if you invest five lakhs, you can generate up to about 40 percent of your power right at home without having to depend on the city grid.

Water: Bangalore needs today over two billion units of power that comes from thermal, nuclear, and hydel resource. It means we don’t need to be building more dams. We don’t need to be building more thermal plants that are coal-fed and we don’t need to take on the hazards of building more nuclear plants ... if only we decided to bring down our dependence on the grid with such solar rooftop harvesting for our homes, hospitals, offices and hotels. This can be done by regulation, or it can be done because people see economic sense in it.

Waste: City managers clearly have a important role in managing these. You could say this of waste; you could say this of water management also. There are clear examples in each of these areas of resource management for a city which can make for economic viability, as well as ecological sustainability. These measures can ensure better future of cities in the coming future.

VISION 2015

Dr Kousar A Shah Zonal Director, Paras Hospitals

Urban Health

Network of healthcare facility is a must City planners should create a holistic environment for healthcare, a thoughtful networking of hospitals, pharmacies, ambulance and each unit of healthcare facilities. This will help in achieve the dream of “Healthcare for All”

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o achieve the dream of the governments “Healthcare for All’, the city planners need to plan a network of healthcare in each city. To provide that network, the state government, urban local bodies, town planners, other agencies involved should join together . The planners should ensure feasibility and conduct need analysis of every city, as per the projections of population growth and density. This shall help in assuring proper distribution of hospitals, pharmacies and ambulance units across the cities.

Why not mapping of hospitals

Mapping of hospitals can be done.

This exercise shall help in presence of emergency health services in every city.

As per the present situation, we can see a number of multi super specialty centers in Gurgaon, however, most of those are located within a radius of just two to three kms. Whereas if these were distributed thoughtfully, manpower shall be equally distributed; hence creating a holistic environment for healthcare. The latest technology like Wi-Fi units does not only help in easy connectivity; it also aids fast response and emergency care in times of need for the public. Tier I and II cities need more facilities The urban population has the advantages of healthcare insurance, billing and counseling facilities, tertiary care facilities, transplant facilities, etc. Starting from cross consultations, second opinions to quick emergency response, the urban areas are well equipped with the healthcare facilities.

However the aspect of developing high standard hospitals in the urban areas is now shifting and we can see a number of such specialised centres in tier I and II cities, as they are developing rapidly.

More and more tertiary care centre availability is required. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

37

VISION 2015

Dheeraj Rathi Business Strategist

Finance

on development spree Unlike any other country, India has significant factors like world’s largest democracy, widespread Indian diaspora, young demographic profile which will help cities to develop

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ndia stands out among other economies in the world due three signigficant factors -diaspora of population across the world, the demographic dividend and the world largest democracy.

The Indian diaspora is estimated at over 20 million and the income is estimated at USD 400 billion a year, the remittances from them is double to the FDI we get.

Young India helps development

India has young talent pool of 800 million under the age of 35.

Democracy gives comfort to the West to deal with India and have strategic relationships. Still to realise the true potential of India at global stage, primary challenge is lack of focus on execution. Knowing well urbanisation in form of emerging cities have majorly driven the GDP growth rates within majority of the progressive states in India, still urban planning is not much to write home about.

The increasing population in cities poses many problems related to housing, climate change, pollution, crime, transport, water, sanitation, power, etc. There is a urban housing shortage of 18.78 million according to the 2011 census.

More mega infrastructure projects

To tackle various problems, the focus should be on projects like DMIC, which is the single largest infrastructure 38 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

project in Indian history. These type of projects include development of smart cities, development of world class infrastructure, development of industrial zones, freight lines, airports, freeways and export oriented infrastructure giving a platform to Indian business and in particular to the SMEs a global platform to operate on. Allied services like logistics, transportation, retail will get a boost too. The initiative will convert small manufacturing towns into highly developed cities with well-established infrastructure.

Industrial corridors a boost

New DMIC cities will help to meet pressures of urbanisation and also lead India’s economic growth for the next 20 years. Cities will be built with world class infrastructure – high class roads, power and water supply.

The project will bring in immense employment opportunities and also help small scale industries in the area to get visibility and develop with the newly developed infrastructure.

Through these projects government is trying to woo SMEs to develop their infrastructure from scratch in order to be competitive enough to meet the global market demands. Also efforts are to attract young talent pool to venture into entrepreneurship.

It is estimated that these government initiatives are capable of creating 100 million jobs. DMIC

alone will provide three million jobs under various sectors. In addition to this, it will create jobs in the services sector. Allied services and small manufacturing towns will turn into developed cities with good infrastructure. Funding of the mega projects and identifying a strategic partner is critical. In DMIC, we have Japan led by JVIC as strategic partner, not only it might give access to the advanced technology but will also provide opportunity to Japanese companies to utilise Indian resources and create option for their over saturated economy.

Modernisation of skill force

To bring in new technology from strategic partners will require skilled and semi-skilled work force.

Skill development has to be on the utmost priority of government, with support from private sector and other stake holders. To encourage SMEs, there should be efforts to incentivise innovation and sustainable development. Tapping in the global liquidity for SME is the most critical element for realizing the dream of smart cities. Seed funding, international partnership, creation of FTWZ, FTZ is the first step in that direction.

An aligned bureaucracy is important to really execute what we plan, and not just create yet another plan for India’s development.

VISION 2015

Dr Neelam Mohan Director - Paediatric Gastroenterology & Hepatology Medanta The Medicity, Gurgaon

Lifestyle

healthier cities for all

City planners should create a holistic environment for healthcare, a thoughtful networking of hospitals, pharmacies, ambulance and each unit of healthcare facilities, will help in achieve the dream of “Healthcare for All�

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lean, green and healthy cities to live in is need of the hour, as each city face various health challenges of communicable diseases, non communicable diseases and threat of reemerging and emerging diseases.

The city managers must come out with a development model which takes into account the problems of urban poor and provide them with the facilities, which adds to healthy behaviors and safety. Rapid growth of urban population, the rising prevalence of numerous chronic diseases, soaring costs, uneven quality, imbalanced access to care due to workforce shortages, infrastructure limitations, and disruptive technologies are some of the major challenges that the health sector today faces in our cities.

Appropriate intervention required

Whether it’s for the early detection of chronic diseases, or the targeted treatment of acute illnesses, advances in diagnostics can bring significant patient and economic benefit.

Technologies that are faster, cheaper, more accurate, more portable, user friendly and easily interfaced/ connected with healthcare systems have the potential to increase productivity, improve care pathways and reduce workload.

A more complete understanding

of determinants of health- related behavior and the logistics of the health care environment of urban areas would aid in the design of appropriate interventions. All three factors necessary to the effective utilization of health care - illness identification, care seeking, and care delivery - vary within urban settings, and hence need to be given due attention, while understanding the operational aspects of urban health interventions. The success of urban health programs depend on different sectors and technical disciplines working together. Key sectors whose collaborative efforts are crucial include water and sanitation, education, housing and urban development.

Basic healthcare facilities a must

City administrators must focus on energy efficient buildings, clean and

renewable energy sources, improved transportation options and reduced waste and industrial pollution.

Primary health care facility centres, sanitation and clean drinking water to the citizens is other area which has to given much impetus.

Technology boosts healthcare

Technology in the last two decades has revolutionized the way healthcare is delivered worldwide. It has greatly aided patients and providers alike by enhancing the quality of delivery, reduction in turnaround time of workflows and thus the overall cost, besides bringing in higher accountability into the system. Advancements in medical technology are playing a positive role in saving lives. However, the medical technology industry in India needs to innovate in order to address the challenge of low penetration and meet the healthcare needs of all income segments. In a country like India, where resources are scarce but needs are great, solutions have to be affordable, reliable, resilient, easy to distribute, and easy to use.

As cities are expanding and new cities are developed, more health care challenges is poised to address them.

City administrators should promote healthy neighborhoods, and safeguard the healthcare of the immediate community. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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COVER STORY

Vijay Sardana President, Socio Research & Reform Foundation

Urban Development

Develop sustainable cities

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ity planning should consider growth trends of different parameters, particularly the human population, exponential vehicular growth, shopping malls, etc. It will certainly help in planning for the cities for the future generations. There are major problems that our cities are facing. These include impacts of climate change, air/noise/water/sound pollution, poor system to handle different kinds of waste and treatment of disposal. The government needs to seriously ponder over the increasing population in our cities. For curbing migration, creating alternate livelihood opportunities in small and medium cities can solve the problem. There is a need to shift the focus on MSME which will be a employment generator in small and medium size town too. Better management of air pollution is the need of the hour. The government should ensure better supply of electricity to reduce use of heavy duty generators. There is a need to impose exceptionally high duty on diesel cars. Indian cities are not prepared for disaster that climate change is posing. One of the impacts of climate change is irregular raining pattern in the sub-continent that we have witnessed. High intensity of rain results in flooding of roads and streets. There is no effective mechanism in our cites for effective disposing of storm water. For energy efficiency, investment in alternative energies would help in making city energy efficient.

The government can opt for treatment of bio-waste to generate power supply and can also invest in solar energy. It will certainly help in making cities self-efficient and cut down green gas emissions.

Rahul Sabharwal COO, VBHC

Affordable Housing

Housing to get major boost

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ousing for all by the government seems to be an extremely positive step. The liberalizsed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy and allocation of Rs 40 billion for affordable housing will be a huge boost to the sector, as housing segment in the country has a very high requirement for capital. Though the Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) are in its initial stages, the tax incentive on the same will have a long term impact in monetizing the assets on the real estate companies. PPP projects will play an important role in bridging the gap between the housing demand and supply. PPP model will also attract more investments from the private investors for affordable housing segment. The same should result in faster regulatory approvals, improved financing and easier land acquisition process among others. For large scale energy requirements, as well as high load bearing gridlines, better infrastructure is required across cities. Building 100 smart cities will not be an easy task for the government. Before implementing the project, some of the basic needs are better transportation network, developing IT & communication network, better health care facilities and better planned recreational centres.

40 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEWSCAN

Evaluate condition of children in conflict areas The horrendous attack by the Taliban on an army-run school in Peshawar has once again highlighted the need to evaluate the condition of children exposed to conflict or living in conflict-ridden areas Team Urban Update

NEW DELHI: The scenes of inconsolable families carrying coffins, hich had the bodies of their little children, showcased the prolonged crises in conflict ridden areas countries like Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, continue to kill, injure and displace children.

In a press statement issued recently, UNICEF had declared 2014 a devastating year for children. It said that an estimated 230 million children currently live in countries and areas affected by armed conflicts. As many as 15 million children are exposed to violent conflicts in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, the State of Palestine, Syria and Ukraine.

“Children have been killed while studying in the classroom and while sleeping in their beds; they have been orphaned, kidnapped, tortured, recruited, raped and even sold as slaves. Never in recent memory have so many children been subjected to such unspeakable brutality,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF executive director.

As per a UNICEF 2.8 million children are out of school in Sudan, a country affected by war, drought and extreme poverty, many of the three million children displaced by the ongoing crisis in Syria have been unable to return to school.

Highlights of the report ♦♦ Globally, 78 percent of the richest children under the age of five have their births registered, but only 49 per cent of the poorest enjoy the right to an official identity. This means one in three children does not have a legal identity ♦♦ The poorest 20 per cent of the world’s children are around two times more likely as the richest 20 per cent to be stunted by poor nutrition. They are also twice more likely to die before the age of five ♦♦ Only about six in 10 children from the poorest households in the world’s least developed countries attend primary school ♦♦ For every 100 boys enrolled in primary schools in west and central Africa, only 90 girls are admitted. Adolescent girls are also more likely to be married than adolescent boys

The UN agency also released its annual report, State of the World’s Children 2015, in November.

It assesses latest available statistics related to child survival, development and protection in countries of the world. This year, the report evaluated the condition of children based on their economic situation, keeping in view the large income inequalities in different parts of the world. The report analyses other factors that adversely affect the

environment required for children to grow in. Climate change and extreme weather events like floods and droughts lead to large scale displacement of people. Epidemics and conflicts affect children across borders. Children of migrants who work in countries other than their own are unable to access nutrition and education due to curbs on migration and remittances. There is a need to ensure child developmen in the developing countries. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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Bloomberg funds city innovation programs

NEW YORK: Bloomberg Philanthropies announced that 12 US cities have been selected to participate in the USD 45 million expansion of its Innovation Teams program. The program aims to improve the capacity of City Halls to effectively design and implement new approaches that improve citizens’ lives‑-relying on data, open innovation, and strong project and performance management will help mayors address pressing urban challenges. The grants will go to the Albuquerque, NM; Boston, MA; Centennial, CO; Jersey City, NJ; Long Beach, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Mobile, AL; Minneapolis, MN; Peoria, IL; Rochester, NY; Seattle, WA; and Syracuse, NY, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.

UTC, Teri start centre on energy efficient buildings NEW DELHI: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and United Technologies Corp (UTC) launched the UTC-TERI Center of Excellence on Energy Efficient Buildings in India’s Cities. Zubin Irani, President, Building & Industrial Systems, UTC India, said, “Our experience and audits indicate energy savings opportunities of 20-40 per cent across most buildings, making the payback to the end-user attractive.” Mili Majumdar, Director, Sustainable Habitat, TERI, said: “The Center shall have a core research agenda on enabling energy efficiency in existing buildings in India.

The collaboration between TERI and UTC in this endeavour shall help unlock the potential of energy saving in this sector.”

Delhi corp launches computer learning programme

East Delhi Municipal Corporation launched a computer-aided learning programme for its schools; costing the civic body nearly Rs 20 crore.

Microsoft partners with SMC

Microsoft partnered with Surat Municipal Corporation to make Surat a smart city.

Partnership aims to make citizen services more responsive.

HC tell corps to build toilets for women Bombay High Court ordered all municipal corporations in Maharashtra to build toilets for women.

Sebi to propose new norms for issuance of municipal bonds SEBI will come out with a new norms to enable issuance and listing of municipal bonds - a popular financial prduct.

On the move: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the new high horsepower diesel locomotive, at Diesel Locomotive Works at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

42 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

Govt to launch Wi-Fi services in 25 cities

NEW DELHI: With an aim to improve internet connectivity in the cities as part of Digital India programme, the government has decided to launch Wi-Fi services at select public places in 25 cities with population of over a million by June 2015.

The government plans to engage a couple of Wi-Fi service providers for speedy roll out of Wi-Fi hotspots across the selected 25 cities. The project is jointly being worked by the Department of Telecom and MoUD.

Abu Dhabi UPC wins global security awards ABU DHABI: The Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) won two international security awards for introducing the Abu Dhabi Safety and Security Planning Manual. It is to be noted that the UPC scooped the International Achievement Award and the Counter Terrorism Solution of the Year at the Security and Fire Excellence Awards 2014.

Amer Al Hammadi, executive director of planning and infrastructure, said, “Before the safety and security planning manual was developed, security planning in Abu Dhabi was largely self-regulated by developers and building owners.”

Cisco, ITL to develop solutions for digital infra BANGALORE: Cisco in a partnership with ILFS Technologies (ITL) will develop solutions for digital infrastructure and smart cities in India. The joint endeavor would focus on creating solutions for urban cities in traffic management, public safety and e-governance. It will help citizens to get infrastructure services like traffic, parking, lighting, water and other civic services rendered by municipal corps. The partnership will bring together Cisco’s Internet of Everything (IoE) solutions and ITL’s understandings in infrastructure development in India. “With this partnership, we aim to develop India centric technologies to digitize the country. The collaboration will focus on delivering core infrastructure, creating a smart ecosystem and service delivery,” said Dinesh Malkani, president, sales, Cisco India and SAARC.

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WWF launches apps for urban birds, environment

HYDERABAD: In an attempt to inculcate interest in students on biodiversity and make them aware about the environment, WWF-India with LV Prasad Eye Institute launched three mobile apps on urban birds, butterflies and trees as part of the project ‘Mobile Apps for Climate Change: A Citizen Science Programme for Schools in Metros’.

The project, proposed by V Shubhalaxmi, Founder and Director at Ladybird Consulting involves development of the three mobile apps on urban birds, butterflies and trees of four metros: Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

Two wheelers to comply BS IV norms NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan in a written reply to Lok Sabha said that all new two-wheelers sold in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and over a dozen other cities, after April 1, 2017, will have to comply with Bharat Stage-IV fuel norms.

However, for all new models to hit these markets will have to comply with these norms from April 1, 2016. This move is likely to curb vehicular pollution in big cities. This is because over 73 percent of total vehicles in any city are two-wheelers.

MH govt to shift jails to urban outskirts MUMBAI: In a move to shift jails outside cities’ limit to in Maharashtra to allow development of the areas nearby jails, the state government is to set up a high-level committee to examine the feasibility of shifting central jails, including the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai and other prisons in Maharashtra, outside city limits, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced.

CM said representatives from urban development and the home departments would be included in the proposed secretary-level committee. Fadnavis admitted that the development of areas surrounding jails has been adversely affected because of the existing norm of banning renovation and new construction within 500 metres of jails.

For safer cities: UD minister M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurating the CCTV system to improve security arrangements in the national capital

Civic bodies to place 8000 new trash cans The three municipal corporations of Delhi will be putting in place 8,000 new 100-litre bins across the city.

BDA allocates land for housing scheme

Bhubaneswar Development Authority has decided to keep 20 percent of the available land under its limits for the affordable housing schemes.

GHMC to ban road cutting for two years

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Commissioner Somesh Kumar said the civic body would ban road cuttings for next two years.

New map of Hyderabad released

The Survey of India recently released a revised geographical map of Hyderabad. It showed an expansion from all sides compared to the last revised map released more than a decade ago.

Germany gives 625 mn loan for GEC project NEW DELHI: India has signed a 625 million euro loan agreement with Germany for the Green Energy Corridors (GEC) project under Indo-German bilateral development cooperation, the Union Finance Ministry said. Department of Economic Affairs, Joint Secretary , Rajesh Khullar signed loan agreements with the German government’s development bank KfW for a loan of 76 million euro to Tamil Nadu and 49 million euro to Rajasthan for intra-state transmission schemes. The Power Grid Corporation of India also signed a loan agreement for 500 million euro with KfW for inter-state transmission schemes.

Vehicles run on renewable fuels can reduce deaths NEW YORK: Vehicles that use electricity from renewable energy instead of gasoline could reduce the deaths due to air pollution by 70 percent, a study has revealed. The researchers from University of Minnesota found that vehicles running on corn ethanol or powered by coal-based or “grid average” electricity are worse for health. Switching from gasoline to those fuels would increase the number of resulting deaths due to air pollution by 80 percent or more. “These findings demonstrate the importance of clean electricity, such as from natural gas or renewable sources of energy, in substantially reducing the negative health impacts of transportation,” said Chris Tessum from University of Minnesota, co-author of the study. Air pollution increases rates of heart attack, stroke, and respiratory disease. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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Soon double decker trains in Mumbai suburbs

MUMBAI: In order to address chronic crowding in Mumbai suburban trains, the city suburb train network system is likely to ply double decker train services, for an easy travel, Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, said. As of now, double decker train services operate on inter-city corridor. The deployment of double decker rake will help reduce problem of over crowding.

Prabhu said that the trail of air-condition suburban services will be carried out by March 15, 2015. He also announced that mobile ticketing system for unreserved tickets on suburban and long distance train will be introduced within a month.

‘Foam’ lighter aluminum trains in 2015 LONDON: In future the trains we might travel might be much lighter, as the German engineers have come out with trains made on new material “foam”, which could make future trains much lighter, stronger and even safer. The trains will be made up of two layers of aluminium hold a metal alloy “foam” made of magnesium, silicon, copper and aluminium and the material is stronger than fibreglass or even metal, the engineers assure. The two mm thick layers of aluminium hold 25 mm of “foam” together without any glue, just by electrostatic attraction (negatively charged particles bond onto positively charged ions). Even when no adhesive is used, the bonds are so strong that when pulled apart, it destroys the foam rather than slip away.”

Essel to develop smart cities in WB

Essel group in collaboration with the state and central government would develop smart cities in Bengal under PPP model.

Chittoor comes under digital eye Chittoor town will soon come under digital surveillance as the state police has decided to install more than 270 CCTV cameras at 90 junctions.

Kerala to set up night shelters for migrants Kerala Urban Affairs Department will set up night shelters for migrant workers in selected municipalities and corporations.

Students to promote tourism

To promote tourism spots, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation is engaging school students to promote tourism under its programme called ‘Aurangabad Darshan’.

E-book on governance: Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari launched an e-book on Good Governance recently

44 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

WiFi services on more trains this year

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways will be providing Wi-Fi-based web services on more trains in the coming period, the Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said. Railways was executing the project on other Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duranto category of trains. “Initially, one Rajdhani and Shatabdi are planned for WiFi facility.

By the end of the current financial year, the work will be finalised,” the minister said.

The minister added that the estimated cost of providing Wi-Fi facility in around 50 rakes -- group of coaches -- of the selected trains stands at about Rs 98.6 crore.

World Bank gives $1.1 bn loan for freight corridor

NEW DELHI: The government has signed an agreement with the World Bank for $1.1 billion loan for developing the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC)-II . As per the Finance Ministry, the agreement will implement the EDFC-II project to augment rail transport capacity, improve service quality and enhance freight carriage.

The ministry said that the loan is meant for the EDFC-II’s 393 km Kanpur-Mughal Sarai secton. It will also be used for the development of Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) of India’s institutional capacity to build, maintain and operate the entire DFC network.

Nearly five trillion plastic litter world’s oceans

LONDON: Our oceans are at alarming risk, as more than five trillion pieces of plastic now litter the world’s oceans and almost 269,000 tonnes of plastic pieces float in our oceans, a study revealed. The total weight of all the plastic pieces is as much as two large cruise liners. An international team of scientists informed, after collecting data from 24 expeditions mounted over a period of six years. Towed nets are used to scoop up plastics from five sub-tropical ‘gyres’ -- huge areas of circulating ocean currents -- as well as coastal Australia, the Bay of Bengal, and the Mediterranean Sea. The floating debris dispersal was used to indicate that the oceans have at least 5.25 trillion plastic pieces floating in them.

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Terex launches new construction equipments

Awarness drive to combat AIDS

To avoid the stigma among the pubic to undertake the blood test for HIV, the east Delhi Municipal Corporation organised a testing camp for HIV. The camp created awareness among people in HIV/AIDS community to be aware about the disease Team Urban Update

Mayor of East Delhi, Meenakshi Suryavanshi, undergoes a blood finger prick test for HIV in a testing camp in her constituency

NEW DELHI: Giving a boost to the construction sector with hightech equipments in the country, Terex Corporation, a manufacturing company launched Terex-Lonking wheel loaders. The two machines Terex backhoe loader - “TLB740SE” and Terex-Lonking wheel loaders – “CDM 856 & 835” was launched at bC India 2014 at India Expo Centre.

Launching the new machine, George Ellis, President, Terex Corporation said, “We have tied up with ‘Lonking’, one of the leading equipment manufacturing companies from China and launched this machine. With this tie-up Terex India will enhance the construction equipment market pan India.”

It is estimated that 45 per cent of the construction equipment machinery produced in India is mainly backhoe loaders (BHLs). It is the biggest segment in the construction equipment market.

NEW DELHI: In order to encourage people to participate in the free HIV testing camp mayor of East Delhi, Meenakshi Suryavanshi, underwent the first voluntary testing for HIV in a testing camp.

The rapid whole blood finger prick test helps to deduct whether a person is affected by HIV AIDS. The free camp was organised by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) India Cares, one of the largest global AIDS organisations providing medical care to people living with HIV. The event was a part of AHF’s Global 20x20 campaign to engage in a multi-state community testing programme across India. 20×20 is a global campaign to scale up access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for at least 20 million people by year 2020.

In India, approximately 36 percent people live with HIV and they are receiving free ART under the national programme, and there is need to provide wider access to the treatment.

Dr Nochiketa Mohanty, Country Program Manager, AIDS Healthcare Foundation India Cares, said, “So far, treatment is the most powerful tool we have that can help us achieve Global AIDS Control. Scientific studies show that people living with HIV who are consistently on ART are more than 96 percent less likely to pass the virus to another person. This campaign seeks to change the global mindset and reinterpret the AIDS response not as a burden, but as a smart longterm investment that will pave the way to ending AIDS, boosting economic growth and saving millions of lives.”

AHF India Cares has partnered with organisations to expand access to rapid testing programs throughout the country, campaign against increase drug pricing, and promote sexual health and HIV awareness. It provides increased access to treatment by having clinics with longer operating hours and mobile testing vans in most-at-risk regions. www.urbanupdate.in | January 2015

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URBAN AGENDA

Cities need power to rule themselves

C

ities over the years have become main drivers of economic growth, innovation, social mobility and opportunities. As a result, millions are pouring into our cities. But, has the country prepared itself for this momentous change in its demographic profile?

Managing and leading cities need mayors with enough powers to attract political talent. India does not have the political structures required to run its growing cities with large budgets.

One of the key problems is the lack of quality political leadership at the third level of government.

Rajiv Gandhi led government came out with 74th constitutional amendment in 1993 to provide official recognition to urban bodies as a third level of administration. The 13th Finance Commission backed the amendment by providing for direct transfer of national tax revenues to cities to replace the previous practice of routing them through state governments. But, since municipal corporations are state subject, the 46 January 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in

amendment was left for states to accept, it became a distant reality as most states did not accept it in letter and spirit.

Rotational system in the municipal elections has been another hurdle preventing the city leaders to nurse their constituencies as their terms are so short even before they get to know the scheme of things, they leave.

Adding to these, in spite of many central and state committees sitting and recommending better financial and administrative autonomy for the urban local bodies, there has been no concrete effort by the legislators to implement the same.

Managing cities’ infrastructure and governance requires budgeting, planning, negotiating, and having a fairly sophisticated understanding of the behavior of the constituency.

But, a job that has little power will not attract quality leaders.

2015 should be a year when we resolve to do away with the leadership mess in the cities. We need a concrete policy that acts as enabler for robust and effective urban governance.

Apresh Chandra Mishra Managing Editor apresh@urbanupdate.in

PROJECTS THAT PROVIDE RELIEF FROM TRAFFIC WOES Versova-AndheriGhatkopar Metro Corridor – 11.4 km – 2,356 crore ♦♦ Journey time reduced from 70 minutes to 20 minutes ♦♦ Provides East-West connectivity ♦♦ 4-coach Metro carries 1,178 commuters ♦♦ MMRDA intends to develop a 172-km Metro network Chembur-WadalaGadge Maharaj Chowk Mono Corridor – 20 km – 2,460 crore ♦♦ 9-km Chembur to Wadala corridor successfully launched ♦♦ Journey time reduced from 50 minutes to 20 minutes ♦♦ 4-coach Mono carries 600 commuters ♦♦ The second phase from Wadala to Gadge Maharaj Chowk will be completed next year

Roads completed under MUTP Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road, Santacruz-Chembur Link Road Roads completed under MUIP Eastern Express Highway, Western Express Highway, Swami Vivekanand Marg, Lal Bahadur shastri Marg, Main Link Road, Andheri-Kurla Link Road (Saki Naka to Kurla), Sahar Elevated Road, N.S.Phadke Marg, Saki-Vihar Road, Marol-Maroshi Road, Mahakali Caves Road, B.D.Sawant Road (Dhaku Road), Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (Extended), Sion-Dharavi Road Flyovers completed under MUIP Dahisar ROB, Thakur Complex, Times of India, Dindoshi, Santacruz airport, Barfiwala Lane, Suman Nagar, Navghar, Sion Hospital, King’s Circle, Hindamata, Lalbaug, Milan ROB, Amar Junction Flyovers completed under Extended MUIP Waghbil, Manpada, Patlipada, Panvel, Kapurbawdi-2

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority Transforming Mumbai Into A World Class City

Eastern Freeway – 16.4 km – 1,464 crore ♦♦ The Freeway connects Southern Mumbai with Eastern suburbs ♦♦ Runs from Orange Gate to Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road ♦♦ Journey time reduced from 90 minutes to 25 minutes ♦♦ The Freeway has been providing quicker connectivity to Thane, Nasik, Pune, Goa sahar Elevated Road – 2 km – 400 crore ♦♦ The Elevated Road is a boon for International Commuters ♦♦ From WEH to International Airport within five minutes ♦♦ The signal-free road provides 3 lanes for up and down traffic ♦♦ The beautiful Palm trees and shrubs offers enjoyable driving experience