l 50 / us $5 november 2013 towards healthy cities · healthy cities a healthy city creates a health...
TRANSCRIPT
Healthy citiesA healthy city creates a health sup-
portive environment where the basic needs (food, water, shelter, income, safety, and work) are met for all the city’s residents and an optimum level
of appropriate public health and sick care services are accessible to all. The city is planned to be accessible, age-friendly and safe as well as mak-ing urban areas resilient to emergen-cies and disasters. A strong, mutually
supportive, and non exploitative com-munity is needed, that encourages public participation in and control over the decisions affecting one’s life, health, and well being. The state of the
`50 / us $5 November 2013volume II l Issue 9 Pages 32 www.urbannewsdigest.in
Towards Healthy CitiesFor the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will be living in towns and cities and the developing (or lesser developed) countries will comprise 88% of this population. According to McKinsey’s recent report ‘India’s urban awakening: Building inclusive cities, sustaining economic growth’ it is estimated that over the next 15-20 years, 600 million will live in Indian cities (nearly twice the population of United States today) and $ 1.2 trillion capital investment in infrastructure alone is necessary to meet projected demand. But is this unprecedented urbanisation affecting the health of our cities? Indeed it is.
Focus Cities: New Towns
Read more... 05
Read more... 21 Read more... 28Read more... 24 Read more... 27
Humane CitiesCentre will appoint real estate experts in 15 states
Smart CitiesUIDAI launches multi-lingual website
Resilient CitiesAmitabh Bachchan joins Mumbai Police’s safety drive
Vibrant CitiesGoogle, ASI to create 360-degree online imagery of 100 heritage sites
Read more... 19
Planned CitiesArchitecture students to rebuild Uttarakhand
Read more... 15
Green CitiesIPCC climate report says humans ‘dominant cause’ of warming
Read more... 11
Healthy CitiesPlant-based water filtration system to extract arsenic
Read more... 08
Progressive CitiesWorld Bank to invest $700 million on women, children’s health
Contd. on page 2...
focus cities 05
progressivecities 08
healthycities 10
connectedcities 13
greencities 15
plannedcities 19
techcities 20
humanecities 21
smartcities 24
resilientcities 26
vibrantcities 28
happeningcities 30
2 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 Cover story
health of people is a global indicator for understanding the conditions of the natural environment and the success of sustainable development. Besides physical health, mental, social, eco-nomic, political, and spiritual factors must be given importance to achieve a high quality of life and a diverse, vital and innovative environment.
Challenges in urban healthUrban living offers opportunities,
but it is also faced with challenges of housing, water, sanitation, health care, and pollution that are having a severe impact on the environment and health of the people. With the increase in the number of vehicles, traffic fatalities are increasing and the pollution lev-els are going up. Urban lifestyle is get-ting altered and diseases like obesity, blood pressure and diabetes mellitus are on the rise due to decreased phys-ical activity (dependence on transport and automation systems) and easy availability of unhealthy food. Further owing to the pollution and stress, car-dio-vascular diseases, mental health problems and a variety of cancers are also on the rise.
Slums The urban housing shortage in
India has increased from 3.6 million in 1961 to 18 million in 2012 due to the ever increasing population, influx of migrants (a third of the population) and rapid urbanisation. This shortage has led to the creation of slums with nearly one-third of India’s urban pop-ulation residing in them. India’s slum population has increased to 92 million by 2012. The living conditions in such environments are deplorable and are characterised by overcrowding, lack of open spaces, inadequate and impure water supply, poor or lack of sanitation
and lack of safe supply of food. It is shocking to note that one billion peo-ple worldwide live in slums. Slums and overcrowded housing conditions con-tribute to pollution related diseases, acute water borne diseases, respira-tory diseases, tuberculosis and men-ingitis. High maternal and child mor-bidity and mortality is recorded among India’s urban poor living in slums, owing to poor nutrition, poor access to healthcare, environmental condi-tions and infectious diseases. Nearly 100,000 babies in Indian slums die every year before their fifth birthday.
NutritionIn India 20% of children under five
years of age suffer from wasting due to acute under nutrition and 43% are underweight. Undernourished chil-dren enter the vicious cycle of recur-ring illness and faltering growth (48% children with stunted growth) with irreversible damage to their health, cognitive development, school per-formance, and future productiv-ity as adults. Malnourished children are more likely to suffer from serious infections and die from common child-hood illnesses, such as diarrhoea, mea-sles, pneumonia and malaria, as well as HIV and AIDS. Malnutrition in infants is also linked to the poor nutri-tion of the mothers during pregnancy and lactation.
The government along with inter-national and national agencies like UNICEF, WHO is fighting malnutri-tion and improving the quality of Inte-grated Child Development Services (ICDS) in a lot of ways, such as train-ing of anganwadi workers, innova-tive communication approaches with mothers; helping to improve monitor-ing and reporting systems; providing essential supplies; and by developing
community based early childcare interventions.
The union budget has provided an outlay of ₨11,937 crore for the national programme of midday meal in schools (MDMS).
Environmental pollutionEnvironmental pollution in urban
areas is associated with mortality and excessive morbidity. Motor vehicles, industrial pollution, electricity gen-eration, and household fuel combus-tion (developing countries like India) are major contributors of urban air pollution. The photochemical smog, supersonic aircraft flights and uses of refrigerant gases are reducing the stratospheric ozone levels.
The increased levels of pollution are contributing to climate change. To this, Australia is contributing 3%, Africa 6%, India 8%, South America 8%, China 10%, Eastern Europe with Russia 16%, Western Europe 17%, and U.S. 33%. The population explosion in developing countries is further adding to the rising CO2 levels. Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai are among the 10 most
polluted cities in the worldEvery year 1.2 million people around
the world die due to urban air pollu-tion, mainly due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Short-term air pollution can aggravate medical condi-tions like asthma and emphysema and the long-term health effects include chronic respiratory disease, cancer of lung, liver and skin, heart disease, cat-aracts and dermatitis and even damage to other vital organs.
Use and improper disposal of plas-tic, steel and other non-bio degrad-able products are responsible for causing environmental pollution and depletion of underground water source and hence endangering animal and marine life.
Contd. from page 1...
Urban News Digest is printed and published by Sanjiv Kumar Agarwal on behalf of Fairfest Media Ltd.
Printed at MP Printers, B-220, Phase -II, NOIDA, UP.
Published at 216 A/1 Gautam Nagar, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi-110 049.
Editor - Sanjiv Kumar Agarwal
No responsibility will be accepted for unsolicited manuscripts and photos received. Despite careful selection of sources, no responsibility can be taken
for accuracy.The Publishers and the Editors do not necessarily individually or collectively identify themselves with the views expressed by respective writers and contributors in this journal. The views expressed are those of the authors only. 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.
Head Office216A/1, Gautam Nagar, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi - 110 049 Tel: (91) (11) 26866874
Registered Office25C/ 1, Belvedere Road, Alipur,Kolkata 700 027 Tel : (91) (33) 24790010-14
Branch OfficesMUMBAI (91) (22) 26372883 / 95HYDERABAD (91) (49) 27896149 BANGALORE (91) (80) 26761598AHMEDABAD (91) (79) 2791 1177
….……………………………………………Volume II - Issue 9For feedback and information, write in at [email protected]
Editor & Publisher Sanjiv Agarwal
Editorial AdvisorV Suresh
Editorial DirectorGazanfar Ibrahim
Assistant EditorMayuri Bhattacharjee
General ManagersNitin TelangR MaheshRajarshi De
Deputy Chief ManagerKavita Kalra
Project ManagersYukti AgarwalYC Anil
Assistant ManagersShreyas Jain Nidhi Gandhi
Project ExecutivesKanika SinghPriyadarshini Guha
Media DirectorJune Mukherjee
Design TeamDilip MannaRitam MaityHirak RoySuman Pramanik
Web TeamMrityunjay KumarApurv Bhagat
Joint Managing Director Rajiv Agarwal
Executive Director–PublishingHarsh Agarwal
Chief Technology Officer Rudradeb Mitra
Accounts ManagerUma Sureka
Editorial Marketing Production Administration
3 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 Cover story
Water Our planet has less than 1% of all
fresh water available for human con-sumption, and of this only 0.007% is
available for drinking. India has more than 16% of the world’s population, 2.4% of the world’s land area, but has only 4% of the world’s renewable water resources. The per capita water avail-ability in the country is progressively declining due to increasing population. In 2011 the annual average per capita water availability was about 1550 cubic metres per capita (m3/capita), a decline from 1820m3/capita in 2001. By 2025 half of the world population will be liv-ing in water stressed areas.
According to projections, India’s urban areas will support about 40% of its population (nearly 600 millions) by 2030. The increasing urbanisa-tion, changing lifestyles and increas-ing demand- supply gap is having serious implications on the deplet-ing water resources. In addition, the water tables are falling, and the surface water, ground water and piped water sources are getting contaminated, thus affecting the availability of safe water and causing environmental and health hazards.
The high concentration of biologi-cal contaminants and chemical pollut-ants (arsenic and fluoride) in drinking water (due to inadequate management of urban, industrial or agricultural wastewater) are causing many diseases including cancer and fluorosis. This situation is likely to become worse, with climate change impacts on avail-ability of future water resources being uncertain and the frequency of floods or droughts expected to increase. In 2010, over 200 million were victims of natural disasters, including floods, with important repercussions for waterborne and water-related disease transmission. According to United Nations, a child dies from a water related disease every 15 seconds.
Contaminated water serves as a mechanism to transmit communica-ble diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and guinea worm infection. World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water. In India, diarrhoea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily.
An integrated approach to water use efficiency in the urban sector is needed to ensure sustainable water resource management and curtail the stress on this precious resource. There is a need to conserve, reduce, reuse and recycle treated water and waste water through good governance best prac-tices. The demand supply gap can be reduced through demand-side inter-ventions such as water pressure man-agement, active leak control in T&D, pipelines and asset management and awareness generation. According to WHO there is a need for effective
water quality policies and regulations and improvement in risk management for stakeholders responsible for water safety. Even now over 16% of urban India have no access to water supply sources.
SanitationSanitation is defined to include
provision of basic toilets, storm water drainage, treatment and dis-posal of waste water, management of solid and hazardous wastes. Sanita-tion is a growing cause of concern in India due the presence of open drains, open defecation, large tracts of water-logged land, poorly maintained tanks for collecting rainwater and inade-quate waste disposal and the scope for intermingling of sewage and drinking water. The polluted water surfaces are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, flies and various arthropods which trans-mit malaria, dengue and other vector borne diseases. WHO estimates that 50-100 million dengue infections occur worldwide each year.
Public spaces in India are insanitary, lacking cleanliness and hygiene. People are inconsiderate about their surround-ings and contribute to pollution by hurl-ing rubbish and spitting on streets. Spitting is not just an unsightly habit but also spreads bacterial diseases like tuberculosis. In addition, nearly 60% of Indians are found to defecate in public spaces due to lack of individual/ shared toilets and unclean facilities inside pub-lic toilets. In 2008, only 31% had access to improved sanitation. In 2010, the UN estimated based on Indian statistics that 626 million people practice open defe-cation. According to a United Nations report “the entire Indian population has greater access to mobile phones than toi-lets”. “India is the world’s largest open air toilet” is also another stigma.
The Ministry of Science and Tech-nology has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to seek new ideas for building hygienic toilets that are waterless, do not require a sewer connection or electricity and cost less than 5 cents per user per day. One major thrust area the country needs is to pro-vide safe sanitation to all to fully replace manual scavenging toilets.
Waste managementOrganic waste is one of the sin-
gle largest constituents of the munic-ipal solid waste stream. Food wast-age is soon becoming a centre piece of organic waste, with its effect on global hunger index and the environment. Food wastage is not such unsanitary, smelly and unsightly but is also a major cause of contamination and degrada-tion of resources and contributor to global warming and climate change (by production of greenhouse gas emis-sions). Improper solid waste manage-ment deteriorates public health and causes environmental pollution. The United Nations Development Pro-gramme records that 40% of food is wasted in India every year, amounting to ₨58,000 crore. Solid waste manage-ment has various technology options including organic waste converter tech-nology used for treating food waste and it works on the concept of bio-mechan-ical composting.
Besides food wastage, the unsafe
health-care waste management (con-taminated syringes and needles) poses public health risks like (Hepatitis B virus) HBV, (Hepatitis C virus) HCV
and HIV infections. WHO aims to pro-mote effective non-burn technologies for the final safe disposal of medical wastes to avoid the diseases and poten-tial risks from dioxins, furans and co-planar PCB’s, exposure to which may lead to impairment of the immune and nervous system, the endocrine system and the reproductive functions.
A major issue in solid waste manage-ment is the lack of digital documentation of various cleaning related activities and there is a need for GIS based technology for better management. There is a need for sustainable solutions such as the dis-posal process of plasma gasification that has potential in harnessing renewable energy from waste.
Impacts of poor sanitationThe total economic impacts of inad-
equate sanitation in India amounts to ₨2.44 trillion a year- equivalent of 6.4% of India’s GDP in 2006. The economic impacts can be experienced in the cate-gories of health related impacts [prema-ture deaths, costs of treating diseases, productive time lost due to people fall-ing ill, and time lost by caregivers who look after them], domestic water-related impacts [household treatment of water, use of bottled water; a portion of costs of obtaining piped water and time costs of fetching cleaner water from a distance], access time impacts [cost of additional time spent for accessing shared toi-lets or open defecation sites, absence of children from school and women from
their workplaces], and tourism impacts [potential loss of tourism revenues and economic impacts of gastrointestinal ill-nesses among foreign tourists].
Besides economic impacts at the national level, improper sanitation causes diseases, environmental pol-lution, diminishes welfare and causes death. Poor sanitation not only hinders the quality of the environment but also the global image of Indian society as a whole. In order to make our cities sus-tainable it is imperative to have clean public toilets, proper drainage and sew-erage, hygienic disposal and waste man-agement, clean air and water.
It should be clearly understood that bad health of citizens is a bi product of poor urban infrastructure and insani-tary built environment.
Healthcare in IndiaIndia’s health care systems are grap-
pling with the effects of existing com-municable and non-communicable diseases and also with the increasing burden of emerging and re-emerging diseases (drug-resistant TB, malaria, SARS, avian flu and the current H1N1
“Keep the flies and mosquitoes away for clean sustainable cities” - Mao Zedong
It is said that ₨1 crore spent on good water supply, sanitation and waste management infrastructure can save ₨10 crore on medical care for all the diseases caused, due to lack of basic health contributing factors. 85% of all diseases are caused due to bad quality water, inadequate sanitation and abys-mal waste management.
4 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 Cover story
pandemic). Inadequate financial resources for the health sector and inefficient utilisation result in inequal-ities in health. According to WHO the total expenditure on health is 4.4% of the GDP, for a population of 1.27 bil-lion. This needs a quantum-jump and rightly investing in improving good health contributing infrastructure.
Besides lack of attention and invest-ment in this sector, there is an absence of concrete regulatory policies and shortage of skilled health personnel. According to World Health Statistics Report 2013, the physician density of India per 10,000 population stands at 6.5 (global average is 14.2); the nurs-ing and midwifery density of India per 10,000 population stands at 10 (global average is 28.1); and the density of hos-pital beds per 10,000 population stands at 9 (global average is 30).
According to a study conducted by Institute of Health Informatics, there is a shift from public to private health-care facilities or super-specialty hospi-tals by the urban population due to the long waiting time, absence of diagnos-tic equipment at public facilities and quality treatment. However, this shift is posing an affordability challenge for the bottom half and urban poor who are the most vulnerable.
Improvements and initiativesIn 2012 a major health milestone
was achieved with the end of polio transmission in India and a decline in the infant mortality rate.
According to the Union budget 2012-2013 the government has increased its expenditure in the health care sector from ₨30,702 crore to ₨37,330 crore. The budget also announced the setting up of ‘The National Health Mission’ to improve the healthcare infrastruc-ture and service delivery throughout the country, especially in urban areas. The new programme brings together the proposed ‘National Urban Health Mission’ and the existing ‘National Rural Health Mission’. But what is needed is to integrate NUHM with Urban Infrastructure improvement under JNNURM.
Another scheme called Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram was launched to provide no expense deliv-ery including cesarean section, food, medicines and consumables, for preg-nant women attending government facilities. Many state governments have come up with innovative pro-grammes to take care of the health needs of mother and infant children.
Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Population Foundation of India (PFI) and many leading Indian NGO’s have worked collaboratively
with many national and international agencies in the area of health care and forged many partnership projects in various segments of health sector.
One such initiative in partner-ship with USAID India was the com-prehensive Health of the Urban Poor (HUP) Project. This project envis-ages the development of a respon-sive, functional and sustainable urban health system that provides need-based, affordable and accessible qual-ity healthcare and improved sanitation and hygiene for the urban poor in eight states and three cities. It builds on past and current investments of USAID India, like Expanded Urban Health Programme (EUHP) and Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion – Debt (FIRE-D) project and draws technical strength from three ongoing USAID-funded flagship health sec-tor programmes – the Vistaar Proj-ect, the Maternal and Child Health Sustainable Technical Assistance and Research (MCH-STAR) and the Mater-nal and Child Health Integrated Pro-gramme (MCHIP).
NIUA is working on the ‘Healthy Cities Project’, sponsored by the World Health Organisation. This initiative aims to improve the physical, mental, social and environmental well-being of the people who live and work in urban areas, with an emphasis on healthy public policy and increased public accountability.
However, considering the gigantic problem size of India’s urban demo-graphic needs, all the above are “token-ism” initiatives. The travel towards “total coverage” is bumpy and arduous.
Way forwardHealthcare should be on the top
of the priority list and medical infra-structure should be accessible to all with best utilisation of healthcare workforce. It is essential to have ade-quately trained manpower with both supervisory and medical knowledge and training. Need for establishment of a functioning, de-centralised, and equitable referral system, improved health education, and improved finan-cial management. Rather than cre-ation of more facilities it is important to revamp and restructure healthcare systems.
The urban health policy needs bet-ter defining (NUHM).Universal insur-ance, Medicaid and Medicare like that in the west should be adopted. Spe-cialised research and development should be conducted towards vulner-able groups. The national and local framework for emergency prepared-ness and response policies needs to be strengthened.
As indicated earlier, get into the roots of the health problem, where it originates. Water supply, sanitary facilities and safe disposal, hygienic waste management and clean dis-posal, reducing congestion and reduc-ing respiratory diseases with pollu-tion hold the key.
A cross-sectoral convergence (that involves the built environment, migra-tion, spatial planning, governance, economic policy and human secu-rity) and wide range of potential part-ners for better outreach, access and co-ordination.
Public Private People’s Partner-ships (PPPP)are required to boost the development of medical infrastructure and citizen participation actions.
But the PPP model alone cannot solve the issue of Public Health and a PPPP model is more effective, where
people’s participation and citizen engagement is vital in improving gov-ernance. People have to be mobilised and encouraged to take greater inter-est and responsibilities for the main-tenance of their own health by making lifestyle changes and taking behav-ioral actions. Though the individual
and voluntary contributions are sig-nificant but communities with institu-tional structures such as a local body or council, a cooperative etc. help in mobilisation of financial and human resources more effectively. The non-government organisations (NGO’s) have played an important role in ini-tiation of participatory processes and establishing institutions in the context of health care.
States and cities from time to time have had and continue to have expe-riences in facilitating community
participation. For instance Bhagi-dari in New Delhi, Advanced Local-ity Management in Mumbai, slum adoption programme in Mumbai, and urban services for the poor in Andhra Pradesh are some examples.
Community participation can make a significant contribution to health development. It increases understand-ing of user-perspective in the manage-ment of health. The community may promote a highly dedicated group of individuals who are capable of engag-ing in co-operative efforts for the ben-efit of all. It promotes and strengthens self-reliance in matters of delivery of health services. Effective community participation would include contribu-tion to planning, operation and main-tenance of services and make inputs into overall policies, strategies, and work plan of small scale programmes.
Participation also develops a sense of responsibility for the health care programme. Health education and spreading awareness about proper nutrition, maternal health and child health care, clean water and personal hygiene practices are important func-tions of health workers. A systematic
approach should be made to survey and identify resources of safe water and to carry out analysis of water. Contributory joint action should be undertaken for water conservation, proper sanitation and waste man-agement and environmental preser-vation to make our cities safe, clean and healthy. Alandur sewerage and waste disposal with PPPP model has helped shape the improved health of citizens.
Yukti Agarwal
urban neWs digest | november 2013 5focus cities
The term ‘new town’ refers to planned communities of the new towns movement in par-
ticular, mainly in the United Kingdom. This term has its roots in the Garden City Movement, founded by Ebenezer Howard in the late 1800s, as an alter-native to the over-crowded, polluted, chaotic, and industrial cities that had appeared in Britain.
Such planned communities or cities/ townships, are carefully chalked out from their inception and are typically constructed in a previously undevel-oped area. In such developments land use conflicts are less frequent since they are planned carefully. So, in the past few years developers have been cashing on developing integrated townships in the suburban areas. A McKinsey Global Institute report, ‘India’s urban awak-ening: Building inclusive cities, sustain-ing economic growth,’ says that India would need 25 new townships to house about 590 million people by 2030. Even Charles Correa’s Urbanisation Com-mission Report expounded the need for the creation of 500 GEMs (Generators of Economic Movement) and SPURS (Spatially Prioritised Urban Settle-ments) as new towns.
In recent times, India has seen a spurt in such planned townships and a significant number of consumers liv-ing in major urban centres are becom-ing interested in the idea of living in the number of planned townships that are being built away from major urban hubs and chaos. Let us have a look at some of these ‘new towns’ which are redefining the way people live in our country.
Navi MumbaiNavi Mumbai is a planned satellite
township of Mumbai on the west coast of Maharashtra. After it was created in 1971, City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) was the only authority that looked after the devel-opment and maintenance of the city. It was CIDCO which prepared the devel-opmental plan for Navi Mumbai cover-ing 95 villages. In 1991, Navi Mumbai
Municipal Corporation (NMMC) was constituted by the Maharashtra gov-ernment for maintaining some of the developed nodes of Navi Mumbai, namely, Belapur, Nerul, Turbhe, Koparkhairane, Ghansoli, Airoli, and Vashi.
Navi Mumbai is home to many software companies of Maharashtra, located in various parks. These include the Millenium Business Park
in Mahape, the International Infotech Park at Vashi, and the Belapur railway station complex. It is also home to major commodity markets as well as a major steel market. One of the important busi-ness landmarks is the shipping port of Jawaharlal Nehru Port in the Nhava Sheva - Dronagiri nodes. The major business hubs in the city are CBD Bela-pur, Vashi, Nerul, and Mahape.
The Navi Mumbai Special Economic
New Towns of India
6 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 focus cities
Zone (SEZ) located in the nodes of Dronagiri and Kalamboli is planned to provide commercial growth and employment to the city. Positioned enroute the proposed Navi Mumbai Airport, this megaproject has attracted investments close to ₨40,000 crores.
New Town, KolkataNew Town, formerly known as Rajar-
hat, is a fast emerging satellite township in Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA) and it is expected that it will be able to absorb additional population growth and help in easing the burden on Kolkata. The West Bengal Housing and Infrastruc-ture Development Corporation (HIDCO) plans and executes development projects in the entire 6,000-7,000 hectare area in New Town. In order to render the various civic services and amenities within New Town, the New Town Kolkata Develop-ment Authority (NKDA) was constituted under the New Town Kolkata Develop-ment Authority Act, 2007.
New Town’s master plan envisages a township at least three times bigger than the neighbouring planned Salt Lake City. The entire area is still under the process of development. As a planned township, New Town has been divided into three key areas: Action Area I, which mainly consists of malls, a sub Central Business District (CBD) and planned residential and commercial plots. Action Area II is to have a planned main CBD, institu-tional plots, IT Business Parks like DLF and Unitech, and plots for large apart-ment complexes. Action Area III mainly consists of high rise residential com-plexes and mini sub-townships like Uni-world City and Sukhobristi.
Various ‘green’ initiatives have been undertaken to provide a healthy life to the inhabitants of New Town. The NKDA is working on plans to set up a dedicated ‘green walkway’ stretching several kilo-meters in the township for people to walk and breathe fresh air without having the trouble to avoid cars and other pollut-ing vehicles coming their way. A mas-ter plan, which has been approved by the Centre, has also been prepared for developing New Town as a solar city. It mentions ways to reduce the projected energy demand from conventional power sources by following two strate-gies — one is by use of solar and renew-able power sources and another is by using more energy efficient devices. Already, a long stretch of the main arte-rial road in Action Area I has been illu-minated with LED streetlights and more such lights will be installed on various roads in the township.
Recently, West Bengal’s Transport Department and HIDCO came up with a plan to jointly set up a state-of the- art international bus terminus at New Town, the first of its kind in the state. The termi-nus will have cafes and rest rooms and services for inter-city, inter-state, and international bus routes will be operated from there. New Town is also witnessing a major real estate boom. This year, a 2.5-acre plot in the township fetched HIDCO a whopping ₨57.33 crore. It amounts to ₨23 crore per acre. Lately, HIDCO has been reaping rich harvest by auctioning off plots in the township for commercial purposes.
Other new town initiativeAlong with the initiative for develop-
ment of Navi Mumbai, many interesting initiatives have been taken for new town development like Maraimalai Nagar and Manali by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) out-side Chennai; Yelahanka, Hoskote and
Kengeri outside Bengaluru by Karna-taka Housing Board; and Noida, Greater Noida and Gurgaon outside NCR. Based on pioneering efforts to create green field state capitals like Chandigarh came efforts to create Bhubaneswar, Gandhi-nagar and now Naya Raipur.
The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Cor-ridor has plans for seven economi-cally vibrant townships linked with the freight corridor. Closely following this are plans for Chennai-Bengaluru Cor-ridor and Bengaluru-Mumbai Corridor. The whole concept is to develop new
towns with economic drivers, employ-ment generation and planned develop-ment of new towns to accommodate the new urban resurgence.
On the same vein, are efforts for cre-ating new towns under SEZs as joint ini-tiatives of Government of India, state gov-ernments and entrepreneurs. There have also been initiatives from private sector to develop new township projects. In Gur-gaon, DLF, Ansal and UNITECH have shaped up the new city. Similarly on the Yamuna Expressway there are many townships planned by the Jaypee Group. Similarly in Bengaluru-Mysore Corridor the NICE group is developing few hub towns. Lodhas have ambitious plans for new township at Kalyan-Shil area. Apart
from these, some of the other private sec-tor initiatives are given below:
Magarpatta CityMagarpatta was originally multi-
ple plots of land owned by a community called ‘Magar’. Some 120 farmer families pooled 400 acres before requesting archi-tect Hafeez Contractor to draft a private township plan, which was submitted to the concerned departments of the state administration for approval.
Magarpatta City is developed as an SEZ. It is a part of the Magarpatta City
with residential, commercial, and IT development along with proper empha-sis on environment, education, health-care, fitness, recreation, and security. Buildings are designed as per interna-tional norms, state-of-the-art amenities are provided, such as multiple Internet Service Providers and telecommunica-tions providers, 100% power back-up, ample parking space, high-end security system, etc.
Through its sustainable development model, Magarpatta City introduced eco friendly development. There is a cen-tral garden of 25 acres along with sep-arate internal gardens for every neigh-bourhood. Hence, almost 30% of the area has been kept reserved for greenery.
Implementation of waste management system, solar energy system ensures further enhancement of the environ-ment. Magarpatta has become home to one of the largest residential solar water-heating systems in the country. The solar panels have been put in all the residential apartments comprising of about 3,500 flats in the Phase-I & II. Family health-care needs are met by a 200-bed multi-specialty hospital in Magarpatta City. This ultra modern hospital will provide the best healthcare by eminent medical professionals.
The Destination Center in the town-ship is the internal Amenity Center which offers space for shops, food courts, and leisure activities. One great advan-tage of Magarpatta City is its location. The city is 7 kms from the Pune Railway station and 5 kms from the city’s business centre.
Magarpatta City has won accolades in the 2008 Sydney World Congress of Metropolis.
LavasaLavasa is a private, planned city being
built near Pune by the Hindustan Con-struction Company (HCC). Among the first planned hill cities of India, Lavasa is approximately 1/5th of the land area
7 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 focus cities
of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. Located near the Mumbai-Pune economic corridor, along the Warasgaon Lake, Lavasa optimally balances nature and urban infrastructure.
The master plan of Lavasa is based on the principles of ‘New Urbanism’ which makes life easy for its residents by plac-ing all essential components of daily life within walking distance of each other. Besides this, architectural considerations such as land character, building front-age, and other design guidelines have also been taken into consideration while making the master plan.
The landscape and architectural design of Lavasa is based on the transect model, i.e. development is denser near the town centre, gradually reducing as one moves uphill. The master plan has been inspired by Biomimicry – the sci-ence that learns from nature and adapts these learnings to planning, design and architecture.
Lavasa city has five towns as of now, Dasve, Mugaon, Dhamanohol, Sakhari-Wadavali, and CBD (Central Business District). Lavasa explores an array of architectural themes, from new-age Por-tofino- inspired studio apartments and luxurious Goan-Mediterranean four bed-room villas to affordable starter homes,
rental housing, workforce, and retiree housing. It has a robust social infra-structure, 24 hour water and power, and e-governance.
Developments at Lavasa are well on schedule, and the Dasve town center is currently under an advanced stage devel-opment. While the Dasve Town Centre is already functional, all structures in edu-cation, hospitality, and leisure are fast-nearing completion. Mugaon, is 6 kms from Dasve and is being developed as a centre for residential, educational, busi-ness and commercial activities. This town has shops, cafes, cultural institutions, spiritual centres, schools, and colleges.
Lavasa will have a dedicated City Management Services team to deliver a unique value proposition to its citizens and visitors with an enhanced quality of community living, delivery on gov-ernance and emphasis on public safety & security including law and order ser-vices, fire and disaster prevention, etc. The highlight is the Citizen Contact Cen-tre, which differentiates Lavasa from other cities. A citizen has access to this call centre which at any given time will be a one window information access for all sorts of information on amenities, que-ries, billing, etc.
It is also India’s first city to use a 3D-enabled Geographic Information System (GIS). Thus, combining GIS with Global Positioning System facility man-agers carry out maintenance and opera-tions proactively.
Mahindra World City, New ChennaiMahindra World City, spread across
1500 acres, is promoted by the Mahin-dra Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO). It is located on the Golden Quadrilat-eral (NH-45); 45 minutes away from the Chennai International Airport and 55 kms from Chennai Seaport and it also boasts of an on-campus railway station. Conceptualised as an inte-grated business city, Mahindra World City has attracted around 60 best-in-class companies from across the world including BMW, B Braun, Capgemini, Infosys, Fujitec, Lincoln Electric, Meca-plast, NTN Corporation, Parker Hanni-fin, TVS Group of companies, Ingersoll Rand, Wipro, etc.
The city has a current working pop-ulation of 28,000 and is expected to reach 100,000 in the next 10 years. The Residential Zone is master planned in close proximity to the Business Zone with varied social amenities built into the master plan comprising residential units, schools, medical centres, retail malls, a business hotel, recreation and leisure facilities.
Mahindra World City has a CBSE school (Mahindra World School) man-aged by the Mahindra World School
Education Trust and it currently has around 400 children. There is also a day care center from Amelio for infants and toddlers.
The township has a commercial com-plex that provides for various every-day basic needs , such as banks/ ATM, food court, restaurants, medical centre, a department store, forex counter, travel agency, and laundry services. Mahin-dra World City has also partnered with JSP Hospitals to set up a multi-specialty hospital within Mahindra World City.
Hiranandani Gardens PowaiThe Hiranandani Group’s first
flagship project was the sprawling Hiranandani Gardens in Powai – an integrated residential cum commer-cial township. Sprawled majestically
over 250 acres, Hiranandani Gardens has redefined the standards of elegant living. Created from barren land, this luxuriantly green and grand township is a tangible expression of a vision to create better communities. Hiranan-dani Gardens, Powai is strategically located with the International Airport just 5kms away and Domestic Airport 12kms away.
The complex hosts a business park, an ICSE School managed by Hiranan-dani Foundation Trust, Dr L H Hiranan-dani Hospital, shopping complexes, food courts, hotels, and entertainment centers in lush green settings. This proj-ect is also environmentally responsible with 5 million litres of water being recy-cled everyday and being used for flush-ing water and gardening.
Palace Gardens, OragadamCreation of an integrated contained
township with premium residential properties and other facilities has been a major effort from HIRCO.
The Oragadam SIPCOT (State Industries Promotion Corporation
of Tamil Nadu) area is one of the larg-est high growth manufacturing cor-ridor for automobile companies, tele-com and ancillaries and IT/ITeS firms. Oragadam owes its strategic advan-tage located between GST Highway and Bangalore Highway with estab-lished infrastructure and multi-modal connectivity.
Oragadam will become the central point of a massive industrial revolution.
It is estimated that Oragadam and Srip-erumbudur region will offer employ-ment opportunities for 3,00,000 people and this would certainly have a positive demand and impact on the residential market and township amenities.
As an integrated township, it will pro-vide the best living experience and envis-ages a wide choice of 1 to 4-BHK apart-ments suiting various socio-economic brackets.
Palace Gardens stands testimony to
its world-class architecture and state-of-the-art amenities. It is the only inte-grated township outside Chennai and provides state of the art infrastructure with all amenities and offers a 9-hole resort golf course.
Integrated townships are the new hopes when a city is already saturated, then outward movement is a better option compared to the congested verti-cal growth. Palace Gardens, offer a safe, practical, healthy solution for modern living and provide an interesting coun-terpoint to the congestion, chaos and frantic experience of city life.
Built on Sustainable Development principles, Palace Gardens has received IGBC Gold pre-certification from the Indian Green Building Council and awards such as the Environment, Health and Safety Award from CII South.
From these developments it is evi-dent that in the two decades of 2011-2030, India will be witnessing the growth of many integrated and self contained townships.
Mayuri Bhattacharjee
“With India’s doubling of Urban Population from 28 crores in 2001 to about 60 crores in 2030, there is a need to create planned urban centres with all infra-structure back up. The urban centres are growth engines contributing to 70% of the GDP, occupy just over 3.5% of India’s land mass. It is absolutely essen-tial to go horizontal or vertical and Double the Urban Land Footprint.”
urban news digest believes
urban neWs digest | november 2013 8progressive cities | policy, reform, finance
The union cabinet has approved a proposal to invest $4.3 billion in bonds of Interna-tional Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the lending arm of the World Bank, which will make India eligible for higher borrowing from the multilateral lender. Under the arrangement, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will subscribe to special private placement of bonds (SPPBs) by the IBRD.
Buying the bonds will help India become eligible for higher levels of funding from the World Bank, which will subsequently be utilised for infrastructure spending that is estimated to be $1.2 trillion till 2017. The proposed investment
will enable India to leverage World Bank’s knowledge base and global reach for trans-fer of knowledge, adoption of
good practices, reforms of pro-cesses and systems, and capac-ity building, said a government statement.
Cabinet approves buying $4.3 billion World Bank bonds
Odisha broadens the ambit of health insurance scheme in urban areas
Kamal Nath: Urban development planning process should be redefinedMinister for Urban Develop-ment Kamal Nath has said that the urban development plan-ning process in India should be redefined as there is a huge infrastructure deficit in the country which would need $1.2 trillion. The union govern-ment is mulling the Singapore model of development plan-ning for Indian cities, where the plan is drafted for 30 to 50
years instead of the current 10 to 20 years.
The government has stressed the importance of a long-term strategic urban
planning for emergence of new cities, not only in the spe-cific context of municipal lim-its, but encompassing the regional perspective, that is, suburbanisation.
Urban planners and experts have supported the initiative saying that the current devel-opment planning process for urban areas has become obsolete.
The Brihanmumbai Munic-ipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to hire Crisil Risk and Infrastructure to evaluate and monitor service level bench-marks assigned by Jawaha-rlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to get funds for several urban development projects.
BMC has undertaken
Middle Vaitarana dam, con-struction of underground water tunnels and sewage treatment plants, develop-ment of grounds for dumping, etc under JNNURM. The civic body has plans to execute sev-eral other crucial projects like Bhandup sewage treatment plant and pumping station under the Municipal Sewage
Disposal Project-II and laying sewage tunnel at Goregaon. Each of these project require �300-400 crore.
Crisil will help the civic body to maintain the status of these services. BMC is hopeful to get the required funds with phase-wise maintenance of the status of the services in accor-dance with the set benchmarks.
BMC appoints Crisil to monitor service level benchmarks
World Bank to invest $700 million on women, children’s health
The Odisha government is identifying rag-pickers, rickshaw-pullers, and street vendors in urban areas to cover them under the Rash-triya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), a cashless health insurance scheme for the poor. This policy has so far covered only those having below poverty line (BPL) cards.
Under RSBY, the govern-ment gives assistance of up to �30,000 a year to each mem-ber of BPL families, subject to maximum five members,
in the unorganised sector for all diseases and mater-nity needs. While the Centre pays 75% of the premium, the state bears the rest.
Odisha reimburses up to �3 lakh for select ailments of persons having less than �40,000 annual family income in rural areas and less than �60,000 in urban areas from the Odisha State Treatment Fund (OSTF). The Labour and Employ-ment Department is the implementing department for the scheme.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said that at least $700 million from the International Development Association (IDA) will be invested for women and children’s health by 2015 to help developing coun-tries reach the Millen-nium Development Goals (MDGs).
This investment will enable national scale-ups of successful pilot projects that were made possible by support from the World Bank’s Health Results Inno-vation Trust Fund (HRITF) and IDA.
“We need to inject greater urgency into our collective efforts to save more women and children’s lives, and evi-dence shows that results-based financing has signif-icant impact,” said Kim at a high-level forum at the United Nations.
“The World Bank Group is committed to using evi-dence-based approaches to help ensure that every woman and every child can get the affordable, quality health care neces-sary to survive and live a healthy, productive life,” he added.
9 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 policy, reform, finance | progressive cities
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has formed an advisory group to implement a national bill payment system through which households will be able to pay utility bills, school fees and remittances using their bank accounts.
The nine-member group, headed by Umesh Bellur of the Indian Institute of Tech-nology-Bombay, will suggest the nature of the payment plat-form for GIRO (General Inter-Bank Recurring Order)-based bill payments.
A GIRO is a payment instruction from one bank account to another. It
facilitates payments through cash, cheques, credit/debit cards, and prepaid payment
instruments, transferring funds to the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
RBI forms advisory group for national bill payment system
IIFCL to have �400 crore capital infusion by DecemberThe Indian government is going to sanction �400 crore for state-owned India Infra-structure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) in the next two months. This will enhance the available long-term finance for infrastructure projects and will enable the com-pany to raise long-term funds from domestic and overseas markets as well as bilateral and multilateral institutions at low cost. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Executive Direc-tor, IIFCL said, “At present,
the paid-up capital of the company is �2,900 crore. It would go up to �3,300 crore by December.”
IIFCL, which proposed to raise up to �2,500 crore through public issue of tax-free bonds has already received bidding offers aggre-gating to �714.37 crore for the first tranche of bond issued recently. The proceeds from the issue is to be utilised by IIFCL for financing activi-ties, including lending and investments.
A UNESCO report on social inclusion of internal migrants in India says that around 70% of the internal immigrants in India are females who travel from rural areas to urban for either survival, marriage or a better opportunity. The report further stated that around 30% of the total female migration falls in the category of 15-29 years old.
The report shows concern about the poor state of these female migrants in India as they are highly vulnerable because they belong mainly to the lower class and are deprived from some major needs. They face discrimination in the workplace, get lesser salary than their male counterparts and still are refused from facil-ities, such as maternity leave,
other maternity entitlements, or breast-feeding breaks at worksite. They are often sexu-ally harassed and are forced to remain silent and invisible.
“There is an urgent need for promoting safe migration for women migrant workers, in particular domestic workers, who constitute a highly vul-nerable and socially sensitive group,” the report suggests.
High-powered committee formed to de-bottleneck metro project in KolkataTo clear the bottlenecks from the 15 km East-West metro corridor project in Kolkata which will
connect Salt Lake with Howrah, a new high-powered commit-tee, headed by Chief Secretary
Sanjay Mitra has been set up recently by the Government of West Bengal.
The underground tunnel-ling work, which could not be started as Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) could not take a final decision on the align-ment, will now be taken into con-sideration as the committee will look afresh into the issue to help in advancing the project work, especially on the Howrah end.
This �4,874 crore project is to be built on the loan provided by the Japan International Cooper-ation Agency (JICA).
India to be the top receiver of remittances in 2013India is going to top the list of developing countries as the highest receiver of remit-tances in the year 2013 leav-ing behind Philippines and China, a World Bank report predicted. India and China will represent one third of the total remittances to the developing nations with India being at $71 billion and China at $60 billion.
The World Bank has esti-mated a rise of 6.3% in the money sent to these coun-tries. The chief economist
and senior vice president of the bank said the amount of
money transferred to India is just under the total foreign direct investment received in the year 2012.
UNESCO report brings to light the condition of female migrants in India
A new policy for granting no-objection certificates (NOCs) in Haryana’s urban localities falling outside controlled areas has been approved by the state government. Haryana Town and Country Planning Depart-ment said that NOCs will be issued only in those cases where there was no violation
of the provisions of Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act 1975, and the land was not a part of any controlled area subject to ful-fillment of prescribed norms or parameters. The draft pol-icy was framed to regularise unauthorised colonies across the state.
Haryana: Policy for NOCs for urban land outside controlled areas approved
urban neWs digest | november 2013 10healthy cities | water, sanitation, waste management
The Prohibition of Employ-ment as Manual Scaven-gers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012 seeking to prohibit employment of individuals as manual scavengers by pre-scribing stringent punish-ment, including imprison-ment up to five years, to those employing such labour was passed by Parliament.
The bill has provisions for providing for rehabilita-tion of manual scavengers and their family members as well. It has a wider scope
for higher penalties than the 1993 Act. Offences under the bill shall be cognisable and non-bailable and may be tried summarily. The pen-alty could be up to five years imprisonment.
Under the new law, each occupier of insanitary latrines shall be responsi-ble for converting or demol-ishing the latrine at his own cost. If he/she fails to do so, the local authority shall con-vert the latrine and recover the cost from him/her.
Parliament passes strict anti-manual scavenging bill
Municipal boards to facilitate hygienic meat productionMunicipal boards across India will take initiatives to provide facilities for safe and hygienic production of meat. They will also address the problem of availabil-ity of suitable land for mod-ernisation of abattoir or slaughterhouses.
The decision is signif-icant in the light of the Supreme Court order last year through which all the state and Union Ter-ritory governments were directed to constitute com-mittees for modernisation of slaughterhouses, checking
child labour, closing illegal slaughterhouses, etc.
The facilities for effluent treatment and waste dis-posal in these traditional slaughterhouses are far from satisfactory. The utili-sation of slaughter house by-products, such as skins, edi-ble offal, blood, bristles, etc. is low and lacks the desired level of quality; this has lim-ited the prospects of down-stream industries that can address both domestic as well as external markets and can be a source of gain-ful employment.
Pimpri Chinchwad residents to get bins for waste segregationThe Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will soon start dis-tributing two small garbage bins to segregate wet and dry waste free of cost among 4.65 lakh households here.
PCMC aims at segregating garbage at source, dispose off the dry (inorganic waste) at the garbage depot or recy-cle some items, while use the wet garbage (organic waste)
for composting and organic manure.
In the current system of collection and disposal of
garbage, the municipal corpo-ration sends garbage collect-ing vehicles known as ‘hop-per auto rickshaws’ every day to each locality. Citizens dis-pose off mixed garbage in the vehicles which is then trans-ported in bigger vehicles to the Moshi garbage depot. The municipal corporation has appointed private agen-cies to collect garbage from house to house.
Chennai to get 750 modern toilet complexes
UN celebrates World Tourism Day with focus on water
Chennai City Corporation has decided to construct 750 mod-ern public toilet complexes across the city.
A senior corporation offi-cial said they had finalised the locations for the proposed toi-let blocks and a tender will be floated soon. Officials said the toilet blocks will be installed at crowded locations like bus depots, markets and slums.
To attract more private firms, this time the civic body has relaxed the tender condi-tions. “Private firms can use
the outer and inside walls for advertising to generate reve-nue. The firms cannot charge
a user fee from the public and will have to maintain the toi-lets well,” said an official.
Marking the occasion of global tourism, the United Nations (UN) celebrated World Tourism Day (WTD) on September 27 with the theme of ‘Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future’. On this occasion, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked global tourism players to cut down the consumption of water so that its availability for long time can be ensured.
As global tourism players celebrated WTD, the United Nations asked the trillion dollar sector to cut water consumption and ensure a sustainable water future.
“I urge all those involved in the tourism to join our global World Tourism Day campaign
and continue to devise inno-vate solutions to ensur-ing tourism contributes to sustainable access to water
resources worldwide,” said Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General, UN World Tourism Organisa-tion (UNWTO).
Food waste in focus on UN World Food DayThe United Nations marked World Food Day on Octo-ber 16 with a warning against food waste and stressing the importance of healthy diets amid rising obesity. “Every day, more than 840 million people go hungry in a world of plenty. This fact alone should be cause for moral outrage and concerted action,” said Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General.
The waste of some 1.3 bil-lion tons of food each year is causing economic losses of $750 billion and significant damage to the environment,
according to the United Nations report, ‘Food Wast-age Footprint: Impacts on Nat-ural Resources’. It is the first study to analyse the impacts of global food wastage from an environmental perspec-tive, looking specifically at its consequences for the cli-mate, water and land use, and biodiversity.
Halving the amount of food wasted will mean having to raise world food production by 32% to feed the world’s population in 2050, instead of the 60% currently estimated.
11 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 water, sanitation, waste management | healthy cities
Plant-based water filtration system to extract arsenic named ‘Idea that will change the world’
ADB approves $250 million loan for Dhaka water projectA $250 million water loan approved by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is expected to benefit nearly 11 million people in Dhaka, Ban-gladesh. This loan was sanc-tioned to expand the coverage and quality of water supplies in the capital. The project is expected to be completed by December 2019.
According to ADB, this project is expected to take pressure off the existing sup-ply reducing groundwa-ter extraction by 150 million litres a day and helping the
city’s water authority raise surface-water supplies to 1.9 billion liters a day by 2021.
“The city is struggling to meet the water needs of its booming population, and more worryingly, its ground-water is rapidly depleting. This assistance will allow Dhaka’s water authority to improve facilities and tap a new water source to take pressure off existing sup-plies,” said Norio Saito, Prin-cipal Urban Development Specialist with ADB’s South Asia department.
Clean Water, a water-filtra-tion system that uses plants to extract arsenic from water supplies and allows the user to sell the poisonous substance at a profit was voted the ‘Idea that will change the world’ at the Global Design Forum in London. The system has been developed by Oxford Univer-sity student Stephen Goodwin Honan.
Arsenic poisoning from contaminated water has been described as the “largest mass-poisoning in history” by the World Health Organisation, causing cancers that kill an estimated 1.2 million people in the developing world each year.
Clean Water uses special, arsenic-absorbing plants, which are grown in a container. Water is pumped through the container and arsenic is trapped in a filter, and then absorbed by the plants where it poses no danger. The filtered water is then safe to drink while the plant can be har-vested each year and the arse-nic chemically extracted. The plants are a naturally occurring species selected for their ability
to remove arsenic from the soil they grow in.
The system costs just $10 (£6) to set up but can produce arsenic - which is widely used in industries including the semi-conductor and mobile
phone industries - worth $85 (£53) per year. All parts of the system, apart from the filter and the plants, can be sourced locally from everyday mate-rials such as plastic tubs and bamboo.
12 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 healthy cities | water, sanitation, waste management
The Sulabh International Museum of Toilets was inau-gurated in New Delhi recently which showcased a huge vari-ety of weird and wonderful toilets from around the world to promote better hygiene in India. The collection consti-tutes lavatories from the 1700s, ladies’ chamber pots, and French disguised toilets, but the highlight of the museum is the replica of the throne of King Louis the XIV who used it to defecate while conduct-ing court sessions. It is also believed to be the only one of its kind in the world.
Gaurav Chandra, the museum’s coordinator, said,
“Sanitation is a huge issue in India. We founded the museum to give a message. We want people to come and see. So our
museum helps policy mak-ers to understand the efforts that were made in this field in the past.”
Sulabh International opens Museum of Toilets in Delhi
World celebrates Global Handwashing Day
The UN-backed Global Hand-washing Day was celebrated on October 15. Global Hand-washing Day was celebrated in many countries including India. Many states in India, such as Nagaland and Uttar Pradesh celebrated the day with schools teaching chil-dren the habit of washing hands properly.
“The simple act of
handwashing with soap is one of the most effec-tive ways to save children’s lives,” said Sanjay Wijese-kera, Global Head of UNI-CEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) pro-grammes. According to UNI-CEF around 600,000 children die each year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by a lack of safe water, sanitation, and
basic hygiene out of a total of over 1.7 billion cases. “The evi-dence is clear. Each individual can contribute to the health of all by just washing their hands. If you knew of some-thing monumental that could benefit the world, you would do it. Everyone has this power – simply wet, lather and rinse - with soap and water,” added Wijesekera.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation along with the Department of Biotechnol-ogy under the Ministry of Science and Technology will jointly fund the Biotech-nology Industry Research Assistance Council, a non-profit organisation, to launch ‘Reinvent the Toilet Chal-lenge – India’.
The Department of Bio-technology and the Gates Foundation will each
invest $1 million to support Indian investigators to drive research, development, and production of the ‘next gen-eration toilet’.
A recent UNICEF report showed that poor sanita-tion is responsible for stunt-ing the growth of 62 million children under the age of five in India and 60% of the world’s population with-out access to toilets are also in India.
Gates Foundation to fund ‘Reinvent the Toilet Challenge-India’
Tamil Nadu welcomes ‘Namma Toilet’ concept ‘Namma Toilets’ situated on the route to the Srirangam temple near Amma Man-dapam of Tamil Nadu have become a major hit among the devotees who visit the temple. Due to their proper location they are utilised by at least 500 people per day free of charge.
Now, people are encour-aging more such toilets that are maintained on a b u i l d- o p e r at e - t r a n s f e r -basis. ‘Namma Toilet’ is
an initiative by the Com-missionerate of Munici-pal Administration (CMA), Government of Tamil Nadu, responsible for supervis-ing 134 urban local bodies in Tamil Nadu. Namma Toilet has been designed keeping in mind user needs and aspira-tions. Accessible to all types of users – men and women, children, the elderly and dif-ferently-abled, ‘Namma Toi-let’ is a user-friendly toilet with a universal design.
New public toilets for Pimpri Chinchwad Under the ‘city sanitation plan’, Pimpri Chinchwad Munici-pal Corporation (PCMC) has recently proposed to construct nearly 2,200 toilets (separate for men & women) on a ‘pay-and-use’ basis by 2015.
This initiative was taken to provide more toilets with bet-ter sanitation as per the state government’s order. The civic administration is planing to purchase 20 mobile toilets to solve this problem and a draft budget of �3 crore has also been prepared for the same.
urban neWs digest | november 2013 13connected cities | urban mobility, mass rapid transport, communication
Metro rail projects are a via-ble option to deal with the problem of lack of public transportation with increas-ing urbanisation in the coun-try, said Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh as he laid the foundation stone for the underground Chandpole-Badi Chaupar line, which is part of the Phase 1B of Jaipur Metro.
“Metro railway is a good solution to the problem of urban transportation. Jai-pur Metro will fulfil a major need of the people here. It will strengthen the transpor-tation facility in this beauti-ful city and help the residents as well as the large number of tourists visiting the place,”
Dr Singh said.Earlier, Rajasthan Chief
Minister Ashok Gehlot flagged off the trial run of the Jaipur Metro at the newly constructed Mansarovar sta-tion on September 18. The trial run took place on a 2.4 km track between Mansar-ovar and Shyam Nagar via New Atish Market and Vivek Vihar stations.
Meanwhile, work on Phase IB of the Jaipur metro started on October 1. The Indian office of Taiwanese company Continental Engineering Corp is to undertake this work, as well as design and construction of two under-ground stations, under a 36-month contract.
PM lays foundation stone for Jaipur Metro Rail phase I-B
‘uncrackable’ communications code developed at toshiba’s cambridge labAndrew Shields of Toshiba’s Cambridge Research Labora-tory and colleagues have dis-covered a way to build com-munications networks using quantum cryptography and impenetrable codes, crucial for sensitive electronic data transfer.
With increased threat
to sensitive electronic data being vulnerable to attacks, the impenetrable systems are based on communication sys-tems in which the information is carried by individual pho-tons and once the photons of light are observed, they change and cannot be intercepted by an ‘eavesdropper’ without leaving
detectable trace.The team claims that the
newly discovered system opens the way for quantum enhanced secure communi-cations between companies and members of the general public equipped with hand-held mobile devices, via telecom-fibre tethering.
The local civic body of Rajkot is planning to extend Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) services buses along the entire 29km-long Ring Road in the coming days. Due to the good response from around 14,000 com-muters, who travel every day in BRTS buses, Rajkot Municipal Corporation
(RMC) has planned this extension service from Mad-hapar Chowkdi to Green Land Chowkdi and further up to Gondal Chowkdi.
“We are considering all aspects of extending the BRTS bus service and are reviewing them for better implementation,’’ RMC Com-missioner Ajay Bhadoo said.
mumbai metro to provide personalised smart cardsMumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL), the con-sortium led by Reliance Infra-structure, has decided to come up with personalised smart cards that can hold up to ₨10,000 in balance to pay for travel on the upcoming Metro. MMOPL will soon roll out over 5 lakh contactless smart cards (CSC) and four lakh con-tactless smart tokens (CST).
If lost, the card can be
blocked and replaced, an MMOPL official said, “The duplicate card will reflect the actual balance that was there at the point when the lost card was blocked.” The card would also display the holder’s name, photograph and identifica-tion number. The official also added, “Usage of pre-paid CSC and CST will make crowd management inside the station easier.”
India, Japan sign ICT co-operation pact
India ranks 121st in ICT rankings among 157 countries
brts network in rajkot to be extended along ring road
India and Japan have entered into a cooperation agreement in the Information and Com-munication (ICT) sector. The focus points of this venture are broadband, traffic manage-ment, cyber security telemed-icine, and promoting public-private- partnership (PPP) in ICT sector to strengthen busi-ness ties.
“India has shown interest in disaster mitigation through ICT tools and application of ICT in traffic management, which is used in Japan,” said
Masahiro Yoshizaki, Vice Min-ister for Policy Coordination, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Japan).
The two countries will also look forward to mutually ben-eficial collaboration on inter-national platforms like the International Telecommunica-tion Union and the Asia Pacific Telecommunity.
India has been ranked 121st among 157 countries in terms of progress in the area of infor-mation and communication technology (ICT). This ranking is based on ICT Development Index (IDI), which in turn is based on three sub-indexes
which relate to access, skills and use.
In the ‘skills’ sub-index, which evaluates ICT capabil-ity or skills in terms of indi-cators that include adult liter-acy as well as gross secondary and tertiary enrollment, India
ranks 117th.Meanwhile, the ‘use’ sub
index is measured by the uptake of ICTs and the inten-sity of usage based on parame-ters , such as internet users per 100 inhabitants, fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, and wireless-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Here India’s ranking is 121st, up from 124 in 2011.
And the ‘access’ sub-index rankings place India in the 122nd position. This sub-index takes into account ICT read-iness in terms of fixed-tele-phone subscriptions, mobile cellular telephone subscrip-tions, international Internet bandwidth per Internet user, percentage of households with a computer, and percent-age of households with Inter-net access.
14 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 connected cities | urban mobility, mass rapid transport, communication
The United Nations marked October 7 as World Habitat Day by encouraging city gov-ernments to expand access to sustainable modes of trans-portation and persuade travel-lers to use buses, trains, bicycle paths, and sidewalks instead of cars. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, highlighting this year’s theme—urban mobility—said that urban transport is a major source of greenhouse effect and causes much pollution. Thus, mobility is the best solution which will provide appropri-ate and efficient systems that will serve the people in the best, most equitable manner.
“Getting mobility right can regenerate urban centres, boost productivity and make a city
attractive for all users – from investors to visitors and resi-dents,” added Ban Ki-moon.
UN encourages urban mobility Japan to support Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail study
mmrda: station improvement plan to be implemented on phase-i of monorail
As the deadline for the mono-rail’s first-ever commercial run in November nears, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Devel-opment Authority (MMRDA) has firmed up plans to imple-ment the Station Area Traffic
Improvement Scheme (SATIS) at seven stations between Chem-bur and Wadala, a 8.8-km-long route.
“We hope to begin work on the ground by December. There-after, it will be executed in three
months,” said Dilip Kawathkar, Joint Project Director (Public Relations), MMRDA.
SATIS work on the remain-ing 10 stations between SGM Chowk and Wadala will be taken up later.
To streamline the transport net-work in urban areas of Himachal Pradesh, the Urban Development Department has proposed to set up an Urban Mobility Transport Authority (UMTA) in the hill state, which would not only sug-gest ways and means to decongest towns but would also implement new projects , such as ropeways, mass rapid transit systems, and personal rapid transit (PRT) sys-tems in a better manner.
In a bid to decongest Shimla, the state government has also decided to construct a ropeway between ISBT Tutikandi to Lift (Mall Road) and from Lift to near Rani Jhanshi Park under pub-lic private partnership mode. Another ropeway project is also proposed between Dharamshala and McLeodganj, which would help reduce traffic chaos in the twin towns.
Himachal Pradesh proposes Urban Mobility Transport Authority
New AMTS routes for Ahmedabad
European Commission funding to boost sustainable transport
Indian Railways and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have recently collaborated for conducting a detailed study to explore the possibilities of running bullet trains at 300 km per hour speed on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route.
The project whose net worth is around �63,000 crore is likely to be executed on PPP model where the state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat are expected to be stakeholders along with railways. A joint monitoring committee comprising of offi-cials from Railways, Planning Commission, Finance Min-istry, and External Affairs Ministry and representatives
from JICA and Japanese Min-istry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism is going to be established for the same.
Other routes for con-ducting pre-feasibility study include Delhi-Agra-Patna, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai- Bengaluru-Thiruvanantha-puram, and Delhi-Amritsar.
After a meeting, Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Services (AMTS) committee started working on the proposal to add new routes to avoid parallel buses running from the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) routes.
The new routes to be added are Danilimda village to Saty-amev Hospital, Maninagar to Shrinandnagar, Vadaj termi-nus to Vadaj (circular), New India Colony to Vadaj, Vastral to Vagheshwari society and Naroda terminus.
The European Commission has signed a €4 million grant agreement for a three-year project to support sustainable transport in the European Union (EU) region.
The project—Civitas Cap-ital—is being funded to help cities in their efforts to achieve more sustainable urban mobility. The agreement was
signed by the commission and by a combined body of 14 EU research institutes and con-sulting companies.
Commission Vice-Pres-ident Siim Kallas, who is responsible for transport said the project is “one of the most important EU initiatives in this field and will deliver tan-gible results”.
Odisha to develop five new transport clusters
With the increasing demand for public transport in urban centres, the Odisha govern-ment has decided to develop transport clusters in five loca-tions. These new clusters will meet the transport needs of Cuttack-Choudwar, Rourkela-Rajgangpur-Birmitrapur, Balasore-Bhadrak, Balangir-Patnagarh, and Jeypore-Kora-put-Sunabeda clusters.
Additionally Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has decided to procure 309 busses which will function on different routes of the clusters. Odisha has also sent a proposal to the Centre for implementing the rapid transport system in other areas of the state under Jawa-harlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in the second phase.
urban neWs digest | september 2013 • 15green cities | environment, energy, ecology
A report brought out by UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says scientists are 95% certain that humans are the ‘dominant cause’ of global warming since the 1950s. IPCC raised the like-lihood of human activities caus-ing global warming from ‘very likely’ in its 2007 report to ‘extremely likely’.
Some of its key findings are that the global mean average surface temperature rose by 0.89˚C from 1901 to 2012. Each of the last three decades has been warmer than all preced-ing decades since 1850. The first decade of the 21st century has been found to be the warmest ever with the global average sur-face temperature for that decade at 14.4°C, the report says. For the future, the report states that warming is projected to con-tinue under all scenarios.
A crucial finding in the report is that the rate of sea level rise since the mid-19th century has been found to be larger than the mean rate during the previous
two millennia. The global mean sea level rose by around 19 cm from 1901 to 2010 due to increased ocean warming and melting glaciers and ice sheets.
IPCC climate report says humans ‘dominant cause’ of warming
ngt asks delhi, up police to prevent dumping of waste in yamuna
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police to deploy adequate staff to prevent dump-ing of waste and debris into Yamuna river.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter
Kumar also directed depart-ments concerned in two states to ensure that rubble lying at two points in the river bed be removed by October 28, the next date of hearing on the issue.
It also directed the panel
constituted by the environment ministry to speed up filing of its report on restoration, pres-ervation and beautification of Yamuna and asked the author-ities to cooperate with the com-mittee to allow it to prepare its findings expeditiously.
Mumbai has India’s maxi-mum number of environment-friendly buildings under con-struction, as per a list released by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The city has 60% more green building proj-ects compared to Delhi and Bengaluru, which are second and third on the list.
Mumbai has 319 registered projects that fall in the green
building category and are spread over 229 million sq ft, according to the IGBC. Delhi has 199 such projects, fol-lowed by Bengaluru with 198 and Pune with 197.
The IGBC report says India with more than 2,111 registered green building projects cover-ing 1.54 billion square feet is among the top five countries on the world green map.
Marc Grañén, a land-scape artist from Spain has designed a ‘Phytokinetic’ bus which will have a green roof. As the bus is going to drive around the city, plants of the green roof will absorb CO2 and produce oxygen, and will also increase the efficiency of the buses by reducing the amount of air conditioning that has to be used to keep its patrons cool on hot days.
It is a great idea as it wakes people up to the realisation that even a small change can have a big impact and protect our environment.
india, u.s. join hands over climate changeAfter the summit meet-ing between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President Barack Obama, the leaders announced in a joint statement the formation of an India-U.S. Climate Change Working Group to develop and advance action-oriented cooper-ation in ‘climate change’ sector.
The leaders will elaborate on various measures to control and bring down the consump-tion and production of hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs), based on economically viable and techni-cally feasible alternatives.
The leaders also agreed upon including HFCs within
the scope of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
and its Kyoto Protocol for accounting and reporting of emissions.
DHL launches unique carbon reporting featureThe freight company DHL Global Forwarding is going to introduce a carbon foot-print reporting feature that complies with norms and lat-est industry standards. Cus-tomers will be able to see the carbon footprint of their shipments within DHL’s web based services ‘DHLi Public Tracking’ and ‘Active Trac-ing’. The new feature is avail-able for customers world-wide to see the environmental
impact of their transports.Roger Crook, CEO, DHL
Global Forwarding, Freight said, “More and more cus-tomers have been demand-ing a precise calculation of their individual carbon emis-sions when shipping goods. By implementing the report feature in our already existing tracking tools, we get ahead of competition and offer our cus-tomers individual reports that are easy to access.”
mumbai has largest number of green buildings under construction
‘phytokinetic’ buses in spain
16 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | SEPTEMBER 2013 green cities | environment, energy, ecology
There are a lot of predic-tions regarding a boom in green technology and we can surely expect to wit-ness some major innova-tions in future. Here are some of these technologies which may change the way we live.
Green concrete British firm Novacem has created a concrete substi-tute which is more envi-ronment friendly than concrete but nonetheless provides the same dura-bility. Made from non-car-bonate magnesium oxides, this eco-friendly manufac-turing innovation absorbs 50 kilograms of carbon dioxide for every ton Nova-cem creates.
Eco friendly bamboo laptop ASUS has emerged with the idea of bamboo laptops to reduce e-waste. ASUS has crafted the laptops’ frames and track pads from natural bamboo. This is a major step as the usual lead and other chemicals release toxins into the air and can damage the body’s nervous systems, kidneys, and blood.
Power-generating underwater kites Swedish firm Minesto has come up with underwa-ter kites which can turn the power of the tides into green electricity, thus helping the firm pre-dict and optimise power production.
green technology for a better future
According to the Indian Green Building Council the number of green buildings is anticipated to grow from 2,204 at present across India, to about one lakh by 2025, which will be benefi-cial in energy conservation and in cost reduction.
This increase will include hotels, colleges, hospitals, offices, convention centres, insti-tutions, and IT parks. Experts say such buildings help save about 15-20% of the total run-ning and maintenance cost of a building.
“We are seeing a lot of interest for green buildings from clients
which include IT and ITeS firms. They have understood the con-cept and are appreciating the
benefits,” says Satish BN, Exec-utive Director at property con-sultancy Knight Frank.
India to have one lakh green buildings by 2025
ADB provides India loan for renewable energy transmission
‘Save Energy’ is the mantra for Nagpur RailwaysThe Nagpur Railway Station is celebrating 2013 as ‘Energy Conservation Year’. It recently launched ‘Urja Saurakshan’ project, which resulted in a sav-ing of power consumption and ₨5 crore.
“As part of the drive, lot of counselling is being done via divisional level workshops and seminars. Guidelines for drivers have been issued. Locos of goods train suffering detention for over more than half-hour are shut down,” said Namdeo Rabade, Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer, Traction Operation.
WWF India organised a two-day Green Energy Fair in Bengaluru to inspire house-holds to opt for green energy. At the fair people were given the opportunity to choose ‘green’ products that fit their requirements. This fair was a part of the ‘Seize Your Power’ campaign, through which WWF is working with state governments and centre to reduce dependency on con-ventional sources.
“The idea is to make these generators of green energy — solar, wind, etc light on the pockets of the com-mon man, mainly middle income groups and lower middle income groups. Our efforts will continue to con-vince governments to show support for micro-financ-ing for such products for rural people also,” said Hari Somshekhar, State Director, WWF India.
WWf brings cheaper renewable green energy to bengaluru
rajasthan to get largest single-location solar plant in world
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be provid-ing a $500 million loan to build a transmission system which will supply electricity from wind and solar power projects in Rajasthan to the state and national grids.
Len George, Energy Spe-cialist (South Asia Depart-ment), ADB said, “Boosting renewable energy is impor-tant for Rajasthan and India to meet fast-growing energy needs in a way that is kind to the environment while also improving the country’s energy security by reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels.”
The new power trans-mission system will involve
about 1,850 kms of transmis-sion lines, mostly in western Rajasthan, three new 400 kilovolt substations, and nine new 220 kilovolt grid substa-tions. The funds will also be used to boost the transmis-sion capacity of seven exist-ing substations and pro-vide infrastructural support to solar and wind power developments in Western Rajasthan.
Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corp., the state’s renewable energy agency, aims to reach about 8,000 megawatts of solar and wind generation capacity by 2018. Bhadla Park in Western Rajasthan is the first solar park under this agency.
Rajasthan is set to get the larg-est single-location solar plant in the world with an investment of ₨30,000 crore. The project will be anchored by Jaipur-based CPSE Hindustan Salt Ltd through its subsidiary Sambhar Salt Ltd with BHEL, Solar EnergyCorpo-ration of India, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, and Power Grid Corpo-ration of India being the other equity holders.
The 4,000 MW solar plant will be set up near Sambhar Lake, about 70 km from Jaipur, where Hindustan Salt has 57,000 acres of land in its possession. However, modalities are being worked out and some clearances are being sought to develop 1,000 MW in first phase which will require investments of ₨7,500 crore spread over 5,000 acre area.
Since the cost of developing solar power has crashed, the project is likely to be financially feasible.
innovation
URBAN NEWS DIGEST | SEPTEMBER 2013 environment, energy, ecology | green cities 17
Japanese Chief Cabinet Sec-retary Yoshide Suga recently announced that they would be building an ice wall to stop the polluted underground water from flowing into the Pacific Ocean. This announcement comes after Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) admitted that 300 tonnes (nearly 72,000 gallons) of
contaminated water is leaking from Japan’s crippled Fuku-shima Daiichi plant into the ocean. Suga stated that the ice wall project worth 50 billion yen will be less than a mile in length and would extend 65 feet beneath the surface and coolant will be pumped below through a series of pipes that will be running several meters
below ground. Ed Yarmak, President,
Arctic Foundations said, “If you want to create a barrier to water flow, this is an excel-lent technique to use.” It is an attempt of the Japanese gov-ernment to prevent the con-taminated groundwater from destroying the nearby environment.
Ice wall to stop further Fukushima leaks
Ford introduces advanced hybrid technologyFord Company has recently come up with a much advanced plug-in hybrid car technology that will help to conserve the environment and also save fuel.
It discovered its plug-in hybrid vehicles actually rack up enough electric-only miles every day to drive around the Earth eight times. Overall the vehicles drive about 203,000 miles each day and more than 8,400 miles each hour.
Moreover to ensure that
the car is providing proper mileage and service, Ford has come up with a new MyFord Mobile app which would allow the drivers to link up with their cars via an embedded wireless network, and would also show Ford exactly how customers are using their car and how the vehicle is performing in the real world. The automobile giant has committed to cre-ate more charging stations for these vehicles to expand their usage.
A variety of smartphone apps, such as EcoDriver, Green Driving Gauge, and GasBuddy have hit the market which will help you to become a ‘green’ driver.
These apps help the drivers to monitor the fuel consumption, reduce carbon footprints, check speeds, and find the cheap-est fuel prices. Most of these apps are found on iPhone and they are now regarded as a positive step towards green driving.
Plastic bag charge to be introduced in EnglandEngland is going to charge 5p for plastic bags as form of tax after 2015 election. This decision was taken to discourage people from using it as 2012 saw almost 800 billion plastic bags (maximum non- biodegradable) being used all over UK which would take 1000 years to degrade in Brit-ain’s soil.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg expressed his support to this new system and pointed out, “They are not just bad for the environment; they are a ter-rible eyesore on our beautiful countryside and cause a lot of suffering for animals, particu-larly marine wildlife.”
WakaWaka: Your personal pocket-sized solar power station Waka Waka solar powered mobile phone charger is a new example of solar technol-ogy which can easily be car-ried in a pocket. With mini-mum 8 hours exposure under the sun, the charger would have enough power to work for 16hrs including charging mobile phones and providing
power to flash lights attached at the back of the charger.
This initiative was taken by the Waka Waka founda-tion keeping in mind the crisis of power in rural areas so that people have the power for their gadgets regardless of where they are in the world, or their situation.
Smartphone apps to promote ‘green’ driving
U.S. casinos join green movementCasinos in the U.S. are putting in efforts to boost green environment and reduce their carbon footprint. Steps taken by them include building eco-friendly casinos, generating energy by installing
solar panels, building casino furniture from recycled
materials, installing LED lights, etc.
As casinos are popular among people, switching to eco-friendly solutions will
eventually help it to
become the catalyst for eco
movement.
18 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | SEPTEMBER 2013 green cities | environment, energy, ecology
The Minamata Convention could eliminate within three decades the commercial use of mercury in everything from batteries, paints and skin-light-ening creams to utility plants and small-scale gold mining, believes Achim Steiner, Exec-utive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The agreement still needs ratification by dozens of coun-tries. “Essentially, what we have managed to do is to per-suade the international commu-nity to send a very clear signal — the use of mercury in industrial processes, in cosmetics, in med-ical equipment, is essentially over,” said Steiner. “It doesn’t mean that all mercury will dis-appear tomorrow.”
Mercury poses the greatest risk of nerve damage to preg-nant women, women of child-bearing age, and young chil-dren. It can also cause brain and kidney damage, language
impairment, and memory Rel-evant Products/Services loss. There are no safe limits for the consumption of mercury and its compounds, according to the World Health Organisation.
UN: Mercury use phase-out within 30 years
ADB urges East Asian countries to work together on climate change
Ahmedabad to earn �2.75 crore from biogasThe Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has given a contract for sale of biogas, gen-erated at the sewage treatment plant at Pirana, to Rockstone Infrastructure. It is expected that this move will add total of ₨2.75 crore per year into AMC’s coffers for the next 18 months. “This is the pilot project and six other places may have sim-ilar crude biogas plant projects in future,” said Suresh Patel, Chairman, Water Supply and Sewerage Committee, AMC.
Malappuram and Pathana-mthitta, two towns of Kerala recently emerged as the only two places in India to meet the clean air benchmark of the Cen-tral Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The assessment made was based on the air pollution level and it was found that there
are very few cities which have managed to keep PM10 levels (respirable particulates) under control.
Delhi-based research and advocacy organisation Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) stated that 78% of these cities/towns have particulate
pollution levels which have exceeded the acceptable stan-dards. To counter this problem a large number of people have opted for walking and cycling in Indian cities. Delhi has the highest number of cycle trips whereas Mumbai has the high-est number of walk trips.
Two towns in Kerala meet ‘clean air’ benchmark
Green activists highlight the plight of the Yamuna
National Green Tribunal bans digging earth for making bricks, roads
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) urged China and Japan along with South Korea and Mongolia to join hands and work together to fight the disastrous effects of climate change by setting up a climate research network and an emis-sions trading scheme.
ADB called for a total
annual investment of about $37 billion by the four countries. This amount is expected to cover the cost of climate-proof-ing infrastructure and agricul-ture, making coastal regions less vulnerable, mitigate the economic losses from natural disasters, flood defence mea-sures, etc.
Much to the disappointment of the brick kiln industry and road contractors, the National Green Tribunal has banned digging of earth for making bricks and roads without prior environment clearance (EC).
It is mandatory for every state in India to follow this
order. Although in spite of this petition by the apex court and directives of the Minis-try of Environment And For-ests, some states are yet to frame the rules for the pur-pose of obtaining EC and are allowing indiscriminate dig-ging of earth.
The ‘Walk for Yamuna’ was undertaken by green activ-ists on World Rivers Day to highlight the degrading con-dition of the river. Due to the increasing level of toxic in the Yamuna, severe threats are anticipated about corro-sion of the structure below the main platform of the Taj Mahal which is situated at its bank.
Surendra Sharma of Her-itage Society said, “The Yamuna Action Plans have made no discernible improve-ments in water quality. The flow is inadequate. The sew-age treatment plants either do not work or are short of resources.”
Concern about Yamuna’s
state has also impelled resi-dents of Delhi to rethink cer-tain habits. In a move that will set a precedent, resi-
dents of Delhi’s Chitranjan Park decided not to immerse idols in Yamuna River from this year onwards. Instead, the residents decided to create makeshift tanks to immerse the idols.
urban neWs digest | november 2013 19planned cities | architecture, planning, design
Designers of the world’s tallest buildings plan to build wood towersSkidmore Owings & Mer-rill, the firm which built Sears (Willis) Tower and One World Trade Center, recently stated that it wants to make a 42-story skyscraper out of wood. This idea has been wel-comed as a merger of technol-ogy and renewable materials which is better for the planet than steel.
Wood not only takes less energy to process, but it also sequesters carbon. Using wood would allow the
buildings to be built incredi-bly fast because the sections can be prefabricated in a fac-tory and shipped to the site for quick assembling.
Engineers have also claimed that these ‘mass tim-ber’ structures can meet the same fire standards as a tra-ditional building.
Murray Grove, a nine story residential building in Lon-don designed by Waugh This-tleton is currently one of the tallest wooden towers.
Students from seven archi-tecture schools are gather-ing together to build and implement design solutions to rebuild Uttarakhand after the recent disastrous floods. These students are receiv-ing a helping hand from
architects and civil engineers under the aegis of Architec-ture Research Conservation Habitat and Design Educa-tion (ARCHADE).
The participating insti-tutes include School of Plan-ning and Architecture, MBS
School of Planning and Archi-tecture, K R Mangalam School of Architecture, Sharda Uni-versity, etc. The selected areas for this rebuilding mission are Chamoli, Rudra-prayag, Uttarkashi and Tehri regions.
Architecture students to rebuild Uttarakhand
new web-based tool facilitates community city planningImagine redesigning any street into something amazing using your phone. ‘Key to the Street’ is a new web-based tool by Jessica Lowry which is going to encourage people to engage more with the community. This tool would allow people to take a picture of the roads or places with their smartphones which they can edit and put in additional features, such as shrubs, flowers, and what-ever else they imagine. Peo-ple can also access the entire library of pedestrian-contrib-uted sketches.
The goal is to allow anyone with an internet connection
and mobile device to partici-pate in public interest design and city planning. Thus, ‘Key
to the Street’ builds a bridge between citizens and their local governments.
New York City Landmarks Commission has recently approved SHoP Architects’ ultra-thin, 1,350-feet tall and 100-unit luxurious apartment tower which would rise just above the One World Trade Center’s roofline. The build-ing’s roofline is 100 feet higher than the Empire State Building — minus its iconic antenna.
The ‘super tall’ building which would be just two blocks south of Central Park, is going to be only 13 meter (43 feet) wide and is expected to be completed by 2016.
According to Vishaan
Chakrabarti, Principal at ShoP Architects, the building will be made of bronze and terracotta
facade which is going to “spar-kle during the day and have a soft glow at night.”
New York to welcome its new supertall building
Sydney to get world’s tallest vertical garden
French architect Jean Nou-vel’s One Central Park resi-dential tower in Sydney will feature the world’s tallest vertical garden by botanist Patrick Blanc, who also hails from France.
Blanc, who has been designing living walls for over 30 years, has been work-ing with Nouvel to install plants and vines up the 166-metre facade of Sydney’s One
Central Park tower, which when completed later this year will become the tallest living wall in the world.
The vertical garden con-sists of 190 native Australian and 160 exotic plant species. The shrubbery covers 50% of the building’s facade and according to the designers intends to extend the green-ery from the adjacent park onto the building.
urban neWs digest | november 2013 20tech cities | built environment, engineering, construction
Seven deals worth $3.3 billion have been struck since January in the cement sector, according to data from investment tracker VCCEdge.
In May this year, for instance, Baring Private Equity Asia (Baring PE Asia) acquired a 14% stake in Lafarge India Pvt. Ltd for about $260 million. And on September 11, Aditya Birla Group’s Ultratech Cement Ltd said it will buy a 51% stake in Jaypee Cement Corp. Ltd for around �4,000 crore.
Bankers and top cement companies predict that the sec-tor is likely to see more consol-idation. Given the short invest-ment cycle, PE funds are also ready to invest in the sector
despite low manufacturing numbers and prices. Usually PE funds have an investment cycle of four to five years.
Regionally, western and eastern India remain the most coveted for acquirers as demand remains robust, unlike southern India, which is fac-ing a downward trend in the demand for cement.
The construction devel-opment sector received about $22 billion of FDI in 2000-2013, 11% of the coun-try’s total FDI during the period. However, since 2012, FDI in the sector has slowed down drastically. In 2012-13, it was down to $1.3 billion against $3.1 billion in the previous year.
India’s cement sector records deals worth $3.3 billion since January
HASSELL in collaboration with Bligh Tanner, Arup and Med-land Metropolis has designed the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute (GCI), which has become the first building in the world to uti-lise cement-free concrete for
suspended construction. The building has used a geopolymer precast concrete which replaced cement with fly ash in the mix.
Rod Bligh, the Director of Bligh Tanner said, “We have taken environmentally sus-tainable design a step further
and precast world’s first geo-polymer concrete floor pan-els which, with significantly lower embodied energy, helps to reduce the building’s carbon footprints.” Other than being environment friendly its pro-duction cost is also low.
University of Queensland’s building becomes first to use cement-free concrete
IPA urges govt to enhance plumbing standards
Sudhakaran Nair has been an active member of the Indian plumbing industry for over four decades. He foresaw the need for a national platform for Indian plumbing professionals which resulted in him becoming one of the Founder Members of the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA) when it was
formed in 1993. He was elected as its National President in 2006 and has since been reelected twice and remains at the helm of the association. As World Plumbing Conference takes place in New Delhi this November, Sudhakaran Nair speaks to Urban News Digest
Owing to the scarce attention bestowed to the plumbing industry, the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA) which is the apex body of plumbing profes-sionals, proposed implemen-tation of safe plumbing stan-dards to the government.
The association warned about the large number of buildings and installations prone to a sanitation, health and environmental disas-ter due to the inadvertence of plumbing codes and stan-dards. By virtue of the Plumb-ing Education to Employment Programme (PEEP) in asso-ciation with the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials-India (IAPMO-India), IPA is keenly focussing to augment the tech-nical knowledge of plumbing
professionals.Significantly, the 10th
World Plumbing Conference will be held in New Delhi from November 14 to 15. The con-ference will be a forum for networking at a global level among public health engineer-ing professionals. The Indian Plumbing Association (IPA) is confident that these interac-tions will yield fresh thoughts on how to improve environ-ment, health and hygiene of the nation through private enter-prise, public–private part-nership and corporate social responsibility programmes.
What is the existing scenario of plumbing industry in India?
There has been a construction boom all across the country for several years now. As every structure meant for human habitation requires plumbing, the plumbing industry too is witnessing unprecedented growth.
What are the major challenges and problems of the plumbing industry in the country?
The three important elements essential to achieve safe plumbing installations are modern codes and standards, skilled personnel, and technically correct materials and equipment. Thanks to IPA’s efforts over the past several years, modern plumbing codes of current global stan-dards are now available to Indian plumbing profession-als. Probably, the greatest difficulty is absence of trained workmen. Vast majority of our plumbers lack any formal training or education. While there are some improvements in availability of technically sound plumbing products, several components and accessories essential for modern plumbing installations are still not manufactured in India. Import becomes expensive and unaffordable.
What are the implications of the 10th World Plumbing Conference being held for the first time in India?
The World Plumbing Conference is a triennial event, much awaited by the plumbing fraternity from across the globe. The event provides an opportunity for interaction and exchange of ideas for the members of the profession from several countries.
Urban News Digest congratulates you for becoming the first Indian to take over the Chairmanship of World Plumbing Council. The year 2013 is being observed as the ‘International Year of Water Cooperation’. What has been the role of plumbing in this regard?
It’s an honour for India and credit goes to the Indian plumbing industry for all round development. Less than 10% of total water consumed is in our buildings; the largest consumers being the agriculture and industry. The plumb-ing industry can contribute towards water conservation by appropriate designs and installations of plumbing systems using low flow fixtures, use of alternative water sources for non-potable applications, etc.
Construction Workers Federation urges to rein in prices of materialsConstruction workers, meeting under the Construction Work-ers Federation of India, have called upon the Central govern-ment to check the rising price of construction materials and have also demanded �700 per day for male and �500 per day for female workers as wages.The construction workers claimed that the exorbitant rise in the price of construction materi-als has affected both consum-ers and construction workers as many a construction activity has suffered.
urban neWs digest | november 2013 21humane cities | habitat, housing, real estate
The Centre will soon appoint real estate experts and con-sultants in 15 states for help-ing them to prepare affordable housing policy and stream-line rules for approving realty projects, said Arun Kumar Misra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA).
About the scope of work of these experts, he said, “They will help the states to develop a housing policy with special emphasis on affordable hous-ing and also study the various laws, rules, and regulations which are involved in getting a clearance of building activi-ties.” He said that the invest-ment in appointing these consultants would largely be borne by the Centre.
Apart from the delay in
approval process, Misra listed out other bottlenecks faced by the real estate sector that are limited land, exist-ing rent law and high cost of funds. On relaxing FDI rules in realty sector, Misra said
the Cabinet note has already been circulated. He said MoH-UPA has suggested bringing down the minimum built-up area to 20,000 square metres from the existing 50,000 square metres.
Centre will appoint real estate experts in 15 states
Chandigarh: PM inaugurates housing project for making city slum-freePrime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said the union govern-ment plans to construct over 15 lakh houses for the urban poor to address the problem of growing slums in the country. While inaugurating a �2,400-crore housing project for slum dwellers, which would bene-fit nearly 8,500 families, on the outskirts of the city, Dr Singh said he expects Chandigarh to become the first slum-free city in the country.
These flats will be handed over to the beneficiaries on lease for a period of 20 years, and after the completion of the
time period, the house will be allotted to them.
The complex would have Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), electricity, drinking water supply, school, police station, dispensary among other things.
Dr Singh congratulated the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and the Chandigarh Admin-istration for the project. “I believe such important
projects will give a new dimension to the country in its journey for becoming a devel-oped nation,” he said.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), recently issued draft regula-tions for setting up real estate investment trusts (REIT) in India. After about five years of releasing its first draft reg-ulations for REITs, the capi-tal market regulator put out a consultative paper on REITs for public feedback.
After taking note of the feedback, SEBI will formalise the regulations, bringing in the first set of rules for REITs, and allow these entities to do business in India.
REIT is an investment vehicle that invests into real
estate assets to generate income, which is passed on to investors. Just like a stock, a REIT unit is listed and traded on a stock exchange. REITs offer a less risky alternative to investing in under-construc-tion properties and also pro-vide a regular income.
SEBI has proposed REITs to raise capital through an initial offer and raise sub-sequent funds through fol-low-on offers. REIT will be set up in a trust form under Indian Trust Act, 1882 and it will comprise of key parties, such as sponsor, manager and principal valuer.
New report identifies growth potential of education real estate
The report “Building new dimensions for real estate growth” has identified the growth potential of educa-tion real estate in the light of requirement for integrated education cities to provide
quality education along with amenities to students and faculty.
The report was released at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (FICCI) South
India Real Estate conference recently. Similarly, the report pointed out at health cities and medical cities that attract other real estate developments such as serviced apartments and hotels for medical tourists.
Government may relax FDI norms for real estate sector The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has recently decided to con-sider and relax the conditions for Foreign Direct Invest-ment (FDI) in real estate sec-tor. An official said, “We have proposed reduction in the minimum capitalisation for wholly-owned subsidiaries from $10 million to $5 mil-lion. The funds will have to be brought in within six months of commencement of business of the company. This has been done keeping in mind low and affordable housing.”
SEBI to allow real estate investment trusts
22 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 humane cities | habitat, housing, real estate
The introduction of ‘all in one property card’ has come as a blessing to lakhs of Bengaluru property owners. This card will be the authentic property own-ership document and it’ll have all the details of documents such as khata, tax receipts, etc.
Once in place, no reg-istration process can be
undertaken without produc-ing this card. Malleswaram, Yeshwantpur, Rajajinagar, Jayanagar East, Siddapura and Yediyur are some areas covered in the first phase of the project. Tenders have been submitted regarding the property surveying and iden-tification process.
All-in-one property card for Bengaluru property owners
After launching around 10,200 residential affordable housing schemes in Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara, the Gujarat Housing Board (GHB) has recently come up with 12 more schemes in 10 cities and towns in the state. In Ahmedabad, it is going to come up with around 168 residential units for Middle Income Group (MIG) category at Sola Road Hanuman Temple and Gota will have 1,296 units for MIG cate-gory and 456 for Lower Income Group-II (LIG-II) category.
Mona Khandhar, Housing Commissioner, GHB said, “We are carrying out demand survey for affordable housing schemes to be constructed under Mukya-mantri Gruh Yojna.”
New housing schemes launched by Gujarat Housing Board
Gujarat Minister: 90,000 houses for slum dwellers to be allotted
NHB partners with U.K. for affordable housing programmeThe National Housing Bank (NHB) has recently joined hands with the UK Govern-ment’s Department for Interna-tional Development (DFID) to
launch an affordable housing project that will operate in eight low-income states. The scheme of £50 million (about �500 crore) over seven years (2013-19) is
going to address the short-age in low-cost urban housing through targeted interventions and innovative funding models.
Alan Duncan, U.K. Min-ister of State for Interna-tional Development, said, “I am delighted to announce the launch of the affordable hous-ing project. U.K. loans to small and medium developers will help build affordable homes for at least 17,000 low income households. The project will also finance mortgages for low-income families.”
The project is going to cover Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, and Jharkhand.
The Delhi-NCR region wit-nessed an 18% growth in hous-ing sales during the first half of this year at 35,000 units, show-ing signs of improvement in the property market that has been facing slowdown in demand.
“This increase in sales can be ascribed to the high number of project launches in the afford-able category,” said property consultant Knight Frank India.
The absorption in Greater Noida rose almost four times compared to the same period in 2012 suggesting a strong demand for affordable options. Greater Noida witnessed sales of 14,300 units in H1 2013, as against 3,750 units in the year-ago period, said the consultant.
The absorption levels dipped in both Gurgaon and Noida, largely due to increasing unaf-fordability of housing options
available in these markets. On supply side, nearly 49,000 units were launched during the January-June period, show-ing increase of 11% compared to H1 2012.
“Over the past two years, the NCR market has experienced a fall in launches by nearly 40% compared to the peak levels of 2010. Both short term and long-term moving average of launches confirm a plummeting
trend,” said Samantak Das, Chief Economist & Director Research, Knight Frank.
“However, demand has recently stabilised and improved in the last few quar-ters, which sketches a healthy residential market scenario for NCR and if the supply-demand gap tapers further, the region is likely to face an upward pressure on property prices,” he added.
Knight Frank: Housing demand picks up in Delhi-NCR
Karnataka: New ordinance to regularise illegal buildings
Gujarat Urban Development Minister Anandiben Patel recently declared allotment of 90,000 houses for slum dwellers in Gujarat within two years. The houses which will be constructed on pri-vate lands, government lands and lands acquired under the Urban Land Ceiling Act, will have all the facilities. The minister also appealed to the
people to occupy the houses for themselves and not to sell or rent them to others.
Houses are going to be con-structed in the municipal cor-poration areas of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jam-nagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, and Gandhinagar for almost 2.5 crore people who are staying in urban areas of the state.
The Karnataka government has decided to promulgate an ordinance to regularise bye-law deviations in residential and commercial buildings in urban areas of the state by col-lecting penalty, from the date of its assent by the Governor H R Bhardwaj.
Bhardwaj had recently approved the ‘Akrama Sakrama’ Bill which allows property owners to regularise their building byelaw devia-tions, specifically those related to setback and floor area ratio, however this will be applied to
buildings constructed before December 3, 2009.
Deviations in building constructions are common in urban areas of the state, partic-ularly Bengaluru, and regular-isation is expected to generate considerable revenue.
23 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 habitat, housing, real estate | humane cities
Sofitel, a French luxury hotel chain managed by Accor Group is eyeing 10 properties in prime luxury destinations in India.
“Currently, we have one property in India which has completed a year. We have two more hotels coming up under Sofitel Luxury Hotel and Sofi-tel So brands. We hope to sign another seven management contracts taking the total to 10 in a couple of years,” said Mark-land Blaiklock, Senior Vice-President ( Asia Pacific), Sofitel Luxury Hotel . Both the hotels are coming up in Mumbai and are expected to be operational by 2017, he said.
sofitel eyes 10 properties in india Chennai developers explore beachfront optionsChennai Metropolitan Devel-opment Authority (CMDA) has started issuing approv-als for residential projects on the beachfront, after clear-
ance regarding construction of buildings in coastal regu-lation zones (CRZ).
Redevelopment in CRZ is becoming difficult due to the restrictions imposed by the 2011 CRZ notifica-tions regarding height and floor space index (FSI is the ratio of land to built-up area). As per the new norms,
all redevelopment in CRZ areas are governed by Chen-nai’s first master plan, while the rest of the city follows the second master plan-
ning. In CRZ areas the max-imum permissible height is 18 metres. Hence, no builder can achieve 2.5 FSI in CRZ areas.
Regardless of all noti-fications, the road abut-ting Elliot’s Beach in Besant Nagar will soon house a three-storied residential building.
Andhra Pradesh realtors and developers feel quite positive about the future of real estate in Hyderabad and believe that now is the best time to buy properties in Hyderabad as prices are expected to shoot up after the bifurcation
of the state.Andhra Pradesh Real Estate
Developers’ Association (APREDA) stated that though in the past few years there were some highs and lows in real estate prices, but cur-rently the prices are stagnant.
Volvo India close to ₨7 billion real estate dealVolvo India best known for heavy-duty trucks and sleek buses is set for a landmark real estate transaction in Ben-galuru. The company is in the final stages of negotiations with city-based real estate developer, the Bagmane Group, to buy as much as one million sq ft of fully fitted out office space for
a record �700 crore.Volvo India currently has
six different office spaces in the city. This move will see them consolidate in one loca-tion at the Outer Ring Road in Marathahalli, in the east-ern part of Bengaluru, which houses many technology companies.
Luxury brands want one cohesive destination, says report According to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle, the new emerging clusters of the foreign luxury retailers in the cit-ies are likely to satiate the demand for quality real-estate as they are scouting for real-estate options across the top seven cities of India. Pankaj Renjhen, Managing Director of retail services at Jones Lang LaSalle said, “All the mar-quee luxury brands want one cohe-sive destination where they can retail from and they are scouting for quality options in large metros.”
According to the report, estab-lished clusters, such as South Delhi; Worli-Lower Parel and the
Chruchgate-Colaba stretch in Mumbai; Central Bengaluru (with UB City); Nungambakkam and T Nagar in Chennai; and Prime Cen-tral in Kolkata are the top markets.
Hyderabad real estate market shows promise
MEMBER - CCMA
urban neWs digest | november 2013 24smart cities | it, gis & gps application, e-governance
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) launched its multi-lingual website, www.uidai.gov.in, to reach out to a wider audience. This website will now appear in five regional languages: Bengali, Guja-rati, Kannada, Marathi and Tamil in addition to Hindi and English.
UIDAI is planning to sys-tematically add more lan-guage microsites to facil-itate ease of access to all sections of the society. The second phase of the launch will include microsites in
Assamese, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, and Telugu. Residents are already able to
view their demographic data captured at the time of enrol-ment in 13 languages.
UIDAI launches multi-lingual website Bhubaneswar: Civic body to use hand-held computers to collect taxes
Pune Municipal Corporation introduces cyber security audit systemThe Pune Municipal Corpora-tion (PMC) will be using cyber security audit system to mini-mise misuse and avoid any inac-curacies in its online services.
The auditor can obtain valu-able information about activity on a computer system from the
audit trace. It will provide solu-tions to help accomplish sev-eral security-related objectives, including individual account-ability, reconstruction of events (actions that happen on a com-puter system), intrusion detec-tion, and problem analysis,
according to the PMC.The PMC is trying to pro-
vide online services where citi-zens can get birth and death cer-tificates, water bills, property tax, and building permission online under its e-governance scheme of JNNURM.
Surat Municipal Corpora-tion (SMC) has developed an android mobile application to provide e-governance ser-vices to its 45 lakh population. Thus, it has become the first municipal corporation in the country to offer e-governance services through mobile.
Users can get info regarding property tax, professional tax, water meter connection, birth and death registration and shop and establishment registration certificates. This app was the result of efforts made by Municipal Com-missioner MK Das and SMC
Assistant Computer Engineer Jigar Patel.
Deputy Commissioner C Y Bhatt, said, “Over 30,000 mobile phone users have downloaded the application in a record time during the recent rains and floods in the city.”
Surat Municipal Corporation introduces mobile app
HP develops new cyber-security solutions for enterprises
Government of India extends e-IPO facility for payment of RTI fee
The Bhubaneswar Munici-pal Corporation (BMC) has decided to introduce ‘hand-held computer’ device to sim-plify tax collection. Initially, the devices will be used for holding and water tax col-lections. The gadgets will be given to 76 tax collectors of the BMC, sources said.
Before going to the field, information like holding number and property type (residential or commercial), tax amount and cess of a spec-ified group of properties will be downloaded to the memory of the device from the appli-cation software installed in the PC.
BMC plans to procure such a device, which can collect full or partial payment. “We will try to collect the payment either in cash or cheque or DD. The data will get posted in the relevant fields of the appli-cation package installed in the PC. This will speed up the process as well as eliminate any sort of mistake,” another BMC officer said.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced new cyber-secu-rity solutions for Indian enterprises to help them update their security system to tackle cyber crime. “Enter-prises today aren’t facing a single attacker. They are fight-ing a well-organised, well-funded adversary market-place,” said HP India Country Manager (Enterprise Security Products) Ranndeep Singh Chonker.
Some of these security sys-tems are HP’s Threat Central, HP TippingPoint Next-Gen-eration Firewall, HPArcSight, HP Fortify and HP Managed Security Services. They deal with the risks through cloud, mobile and bring your own device (BYOD) technologies; real-time application threat detections and identification among many other facilities regarding security against cyber intrusions.
Non-resident Indians (NRI) can now easily access infor-mation from 176 Indian mis-sions as the government is extending the facility of elec-tronic Indian postal order (e-IPO) for payment of RTI fee and costs to these missions.
The Department of Per-sonnel and Training said it had received feedback that NRIs were facing difficulties in accessing information from the Indian missions and posts under the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
25 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 it, gis & gps application, e-governance | smart cities
IBM completes digital plan for Dighi Port IBM has announced that it has completed the digital plan for Dighi Port Industrial Area, Maharashtra under its partnership with Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC).
DMICDC had selected IBM to develop new ‘smart cities’ across six states of India. Spe-cial care will be given to man-
agement of clean water, energy, transportation, public safety, education and healthcare. “We are pleased to have IBM as one of the key partners for this project to develop a city based on international stan-dards in close proximity to Dighi Port. This will enhance economic growth, global
competitiveness, social inclu-sion, and environmental sus-tainability in select cities,” said Amitabh Kant, Chief Exec-utive Officer and Managing Director, DMICDC .
“This project provides the foundation to use technology in new ways to drive economic development, job growth and improve the quality of life for citizens. This project pro-
vides the foundation to use technology in new ways to drive economic development, job growth and improve the quality of life for citizens,” said Rahul Sharma, Executive Director, Partner & Smarter Cities Leader, Global Busi-ness Services, IBM India/South Asia.
Odisha has become the first state to have mechanised its General Provident Fund (GPF) along with the Push SMS system for its two lakh government employees. The users can check their GPF status online, balance posi-tion and they can also point out any omission or mis-take to the Accountant Gen-eral (AG) office for quick
settlement. Other than these they can subscribe to the sys-tem and can receive their monthly updates through SMS.
To benefit from this system the user has to log on to the official website of AG, Odisha http://www.agodisha.gov.in and get registered through their respective Drawing and Disbursing Officers.
Kerala: E-governance project in education sector attracts 16 companies Sixteen major software devel-opment companies have come forward to carry out an exten-sive e-governance project ini-tiated by Kerala’s higher education department for improving the governance in universities, collegiate edu-cation department and tech-nical education department in the state.
Exclusive student portal, simplified process for sub-mitting and tracking univer-sity applications, e-payment facilities, etc are some of the features of this e-governance project.
According to sources, the
government has set aside ₨20 crore and plans to final-ise the software development
agency for the e-gover-nance programme by the end of 2013.
Maharashtra transport body adopts GPS and wi-fi technologyThe Maharashtra State Road Transport Corpora-tion (MSRTC) is taking new
measures to adopt latest tech-nologies, which include GPS and Wi-Fi systems installed in
AC buses. Along with it, senior officers will now track every bus’s movement in the state by connecting with regional and works managers via video conferencing.
“This is being done with the objective of shifting the admin-istration procedures rapidly towards e-governance,” said MSRTC Public Relations Offi-cer Mukund Dhus.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government is also insisting on installation of GPS (Global Posi-tioning System), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), RFID (radio frequency identification tags), roof-top indicators, and identity cards for auto drivers to get new permits.
Odisha first to have mechanised GPF system
nasscom lauds india’s measures for it sectorThe National Association of Software and Service Com-panies (NASSCOM) has welcomed various measures undertaken by the Centre to enhance India’s image as a preferred “business
destination” by improving overall business environ-ment for the IT sector.
In 2012, the Prime Minis-ter’s Office had constituted the Rangachary Committee to determine the approach
to taxation of the IT sector under the existing legisla-tive framework. In a step that will play an instrumen-tal role in developing soft-ware solutions, the Cen-tre modified the circulars pertaining to taxation of R&D centres in India. SEZ rules were also modified to meet some of the specific sectoral characteristics of the IT sector.
Once the Electronic Deliv-ery of Services Bill under the National E-governance Plan (NeGP) is passed it will become mandatory to deliver all government services elec-tronically in five years.
Maharashtra has become the leading state in the coun-try in implementing e-Gov-ernance services with the service delivery almost sta-bilised, said Gaurav Dwivedi, Director, e-Governance, Department of Electronics & Information Technology.
The NeGP with its single window concept makes most
public services easily acces-sible at an affordable cost. It covers 31 mission mode proj-ects being implemented at the central, state and local
government levels and proj-ects in banking, insurance, income-tax, pensions, pass-ports, Aadhaar card, land records, among others.
E-delivery of services to become mandatory in five years
urban neWs digest | november 2013 26Resilient Cities | disaster mitigation, safety, security
Gujarat Chief Minister Nar-endra Modi recently launched the eGujCop project in Gandhi-nagar. The programme, running under the Information Technol-ogy Enabled System (ITES), has been designed to bring a simple, fast, transparent and effective connection between the police departments and converting the procedures online through a specially designed database.
“The project, established at a cost of �150 crore, has been acknowledged by the Centre as a successful model. The project will bring a paradigm shift in the functioning of the police depart-ment, reducing their work-load through the e-Document
system. In a way, eGujCop could prove more effective than even AK-47,” said Modi.
The system links over 1,000 physical entities, includ-ing police stations, jails, home guards, the forensic science lab, the Prohibition and Anti-Corruption Bureau, with data
about police and other security personnel, as well as a databank of criminals.
Through Citizen Portal Ser-vice citizens can request police services online as well. They can view the progress of their cases online and download important forms and certificates.
Gujarat CM launches eGujCop project in Gandhinagar
Factory assembled skid mounted fire protection systems launched
Smartphones will now detect earthquakesThe accelerometers in pres-ent smartphones are sensitive enough to detect earthquakes which are five and higher on the Ritcher scale, said seismol-ogists from National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy. This study proposes that a network of smartphone-powered earthquake detectors can be used in urban areas, where the data gathered can be transmitted to the authorities to help first responders iden-tify the worst hit areas.
However, this system will not be able to detect an earth-quake that is lower than 5, but the presence of phone sen-sors are definitely an advan-tage. The latest version of accelerometers known as
Micro-Elctro-Mechanical Sys-tems (MEMs) are cheaper than the standard equipment and are used in smartphones and tablets. MEM accelerometers
are used in measuring accel-eration and orientation, and were previously used in cars to trigger air-bags in case of an accident.
Maharashtra Tourism Devel-opment Corporation (MTDC) is developing a new mobile application for women’s safety. With the objective of sensitising tourism fraternity and the pub-lic at large, MTDC has taken up the theme of women safety this year announcing vari-ous initiatives. Kishori Gadre,
General Manager, MTDC said, “Maharashtra is still a safe place as compared to other regions. Still the women travel-lers have a feeling of insecurity and this can only be restored through changing the behav-iour. Every person should have a positive approach towards women travellers and should
behave in a decent manner. This can be promoted only through word of mouth and awareness.” She suggested developing a model for code of conduct and said that edu-cating children right from school and college can have an immense impact on attitude towards women travellers.
MTDC develops women’s safety app
Grundfos Pumps India Pvt. Ltd (Grundfos India) has launched a factory assem-bled fire protection system which complies with local National Building Code and Tariff Advisory Coun-cil guidelines. This system can be delivered to the site as pumping systems with the necessary pipework, valves, control systems, wiring - all assembled and mounted on a skid. These ‘packaged fire units’ offer several benefits
by way of savings in man-power, time consumed for erection and commission-ing to name a few. Engi-neered from a broad selec-tion of pumps, motors, diesel engines, controls and high quality accessories, this lat-est solution is a ‘plug-and-douse’ system suitable for high rise commercial build-ings, hotels and resorts, residential apartments, multiplexes and general industry.
Due to the rising number of crimes against women, some of the following apps have been launched in the market for women’s safety.
FIGHTBACKAvailable on iPhone,
Android, Blackberry, Windows, this app will send SOS alerts from your phone.
YWCA Safety Alert A simple tap on the alert button or a shake of the phone activates an alarm with a loud shrilling sound to attract the attention of people within the vicin-ity, plus a distress email
and test message will be sent to your pre-set emer-gency list. A notification will be sent to fellow users in your area. Your current GPS location will be tagged along with the email, mes-sage and notification. And you have the facility to do an emergency call as well.
Sentinel Available on iPhone
and Android, this app will send SMS, emails and Interactive Voice Response calls to all your emergency contacts. Your loca-tion, travel history and travel direction will also be sent.
safety apps for women
innovation
27 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 disaster mitigation, safety, security | resilient cities
Mumbai traffic police have roped in Amitabh Bachchan to spread awareness and infor-mation on road safety. Every year 1.5 lakh people are killed in India in road accidents, of which around 13,000 cases are in Maharashtra alone. The police hope that the campaign with Bachchan can be taken to the national level.
In January this year, Bach-chan had expressed willing-ness to participate in a docu-mentary on traffic awareness, while donating �11 lakh towards the Traffic Police Fund.
“We had been thinking of getting Amitabh Bachchan on board for a long time. The impact he has created with the polio campaign is there for all
to see. He readily agreed to help out when we spoke to him about the campaign,” Joint Commis-sioner of Police (Traffic) Vivek
Phansalkar said, adding that Bachchan joining the campaign will also boost of the morale of the traffic cops.
Amitabh Bachchan joins Mumbai Police’s safety drive
Bengaluru entrepreneurs launch all-woman cab fleetThree entrepreneurs in Beng-aluru have launched the city’s first lady-driven taxis only for female passengers. The safety of women passenger struck the minds of Vinay Chaithanya, a real estate entrepreneur, Man-junatha Adde, a social activist and writer and Surya Muku-ndaraj, a lawyer and that’s when they hit upon the idea of introducing an all-woman cab fleet, Angel City Cabs .
Currently Angel City Cabs Company has six women driv-ers, who work an eight hour
shift every day. The cabs have also been fitted with ‘panic buttons’ for emergencies. “When the button is pressed, a message reaches our phones and when we call back the number connected to the cab through an Android app, we can hear what is happen-ing on our phones through a microphone in the car. There is a live GPS tracker as well,” said Mukundaraj. Though the cabs are meant for women, family members accompany-ing them are allowed.
Indian malls boost security after Nairobi attackAfter the major terrorist attack in Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, Indian malls are strengthen-ing their security to avoid such tragedies. Apart from routine security activities, mall own-ers are sensitising staff to the need for vigilance and train-ing them on dealing with such situations.
“After that incident most of the malls braced up their security systems. We now rely more on technology than
on people to avoid as much human error as possible,” said Rajendra Kalkar, Senior
Centre Director (West),High Street Phoenix, Mumbai.
Such scenarios aren’t talked about as much as they should be, said Vishal Swara, Managing Director, SLV Secu-rity Services, which provides security to the DLF malls.
“We are now reinforcing our training. We are bring-ing in new training capsules,” Swara said, adding that “the kind of background that the staff comes from, the training needs to be reinforced for it to be effective.”
Government of India urges states to improve road safetyThe Centre is asking states reporting large number of road deaths, injuries and accidents to focus on road safety to meet United Nations’s target of reduc-ing deaths by 50% during this decade.
“We are asking all states and particularly those reporting high number of deaths, injuries and crashes to take measures, including traffic rule enforce-ment, removing liquor vends along national highways, noti-fying speed limits, streamlin-ing issuance of driving licenses and to have a robust emergency rescue system to save lives,” said Joint Secretary (Transport) Sanjay Bandopadhyaya.
3D flood hazard map developed in PhilippinesDestructive floods and heavy rainfall in Philippines have pushed the government to pro-duce 3D flood hazard maps for better planning and decision making. Mary Ann Lucille Sering, Secretary, Climate Change Commission said that this map will be extremely useful in taking major steps based on the future flood sce-nario and climate change. The maps will provide updated data and analysis on local flooding and climate risks. The map will grade the risk factor by colors. Deeper the hue and higher is the risk.
The Climate Change Com-mission is the only policy making body in the coun-try which acts, coordinates, monitors and evaluates the climate changes. With the
help of 3D maps, they have already mapped the cli-mate changes from 2020 to 2050. These changes include annual mean temperature and rainfall changes, humid-ity, soil erosion and soil tex-ture, seal level rise among other risks. These maps have been created using data from the Department of Science and Technology’s Project Noah and the National Map-ping and Resource Informa-tion Authority. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Admin-istration, the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Geological Sci-ences and other government agencies have also helped the commission in making these maps.
West Bengal will create 1,523 new police posts for the nine new police stations that will be set up in the added areas after they are brought under Kolkata Police.
Some of the police sta-tions which are shifting from West Bengal police jurisdic-tion to Kolkata Police are Pat-uli, Haridebpur, Tiljala and
Thakurpukur. Earlier it was noticed that since the south-ern fringes of the city have a higher population compared to that of the city proper, there was a need for better security. Also, a large num-ber of outsiders come to stay in the southern fringe areas for which better security was required.
More than 1,500 new police posts for Kolkata
urban neWs digest | november 2013 28vibrant cities | heritage, conservation, tourism, culture, public spaces
Social Tourism Project to revive dying arts of KeralaThe Social Tourism Project of the Tourism Department, inaugurated by Kerala Tour-ism Minister AP Anil Kumar, aims at reviving the dying art forms of India. The project has been sanctioned �1.8 crore for the initial phase, and the total cost is estimated to be around �4 crore.
“There are several artistes in our state who cling to the traditions of their arts, but they are sidelined, which ulti-mately leads to the death of the art,” Kumar said.
Hosted by the Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust at Sai
Gramam, the project aims at promoting art forms such as kakarissinatakam, pulluvan-paatu, kalaripayattu, theyyam, thayambaka, pulikali, paa-vakoothu, thottampaatu, velakali, chakyarkoothu and koodiyattam.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh reopened Humayun’s Tomb, a UNESCO World Her-itage Site, after six years of res-toration work. “India has one of the richest repositories of heritage anywhere in the world and it is critical that we find practical and innovative ways to preserve and maintain this heritage,” Dr Singh said while inaugurating monument.
Humayun’s Tomb, was completed in 1570 by the Islamic Mughal dynasty that ruled most of northern India for more than three centu-ries. About 1,500 craftsmen have worked on the tomb and its onion-shaped white dome since 2008, restoring it to its 16th-century glory in a proj-ect funded largely by the Aga Khan Trust. The Archaeologi-cal Survey of India, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, World Monu-ments Fund, Ford Founda-tion and other organisations
were partners in the Huma-yun Tomb project.
Along with the tomb, a number of adjoining mon-uments like Nila Gumbad, Isa Khan’s garden tomb, Bu Halima’s garden tomb, Arab ki Sarai gateways, Sundar-awala Mahal and Burj, Bata-shewala group of monuments,
Chausath Khambha and Haz-rat Nizamuddin Baoli have also been restored. Dr Singh said that communities of the Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti now benefit from improved urban infrastructure in health, education, water and sanita-tion as a by-product of this initiative.
Humayun’s Tomb unveiled after six years of restoration work
16th century lotus pond discovered in Sunder Nursery
Fort Kochi to get a makeoverFort Kochi and surrounding areas are to get a facelift with the state government under-taking a �4.8-crore project in this regard. The work includes upgradation of parade ground, development of the park near the Vasco Da Gama Square, upgradation and beautifica-tion of K J Herschele Road and beautification of beach and its premises.
Encroachment in Fort Kochi is a major problem and it is not something lim-ited only to unauthorised
occupancy of land. Exten-sions of shops using tarpau-lin sheets that stretch beyond
the allotted area can also be brought under the definition of encroachment.
Dubai Creek to be named World Heritage Site
A 16th century lotus pond was discovered recently by a team from Aga Khan Trust, who are engaged in conserva-tion work at Sunder Nursery in New Delhi. An expert said, “The shallow depth and nine depressions on the base of the tank are signs that this nine metre diameter foliated tank
was used by Mughals to grow and display lotuses.”
The trust team is currently busy working on the pond and engaged in upgrading the Sunder Nursery which is located at Humayun’s Tomb, a world heritage site. They are expecting it to be a major tour-ist attraction by 2015.
Dubai Creek, which is a nat-ural seawater inlet of the Arabian Gulf, is in the race to become a World Heri-tage Site. The 14km long and between 100-500 meters wide creek played a major role in the economic development of Dubai.
Experts from UNESCO will visit the site which is located in the heart of Dubai
to assess its eligibility.Rashad Bukhash, Direc-
tor, Architectural Heritage Department, Dubai Munic-ipality said, “To fulfil the requirements of a World Heritage Site, we will set up a tourist office that will provide tourists and residents with everything they need to know about the creek’s importance in Dubai.”
Google’s Street View has part-nered with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to create a 360-degree online imagery of 100 of India’s most important heritage sites, including the
Taj Mahal, Khajuraho Temple, and Ajanta and Ellora caves. Google’s Street View Trekker, a wearable backpack with a camera on top, will capture images of remote heritage sites
accessible only by foot. The trekker is worn by an oper-ator and is walked through pedestrian walkways or trails on foot and automatically cap-tures images as it goes.
Rajan Anandan, Vice Pres-ident and Managing Director, Google India said, “In a coun-try like India, where we have the worlds’ second largest population and 5,000 years of history, rich in cultural diver-sity, technology can help us share the Indian experience with the rest of the world-and each other-more effectively than ever before. We’re hon-oured to be working with the ASI to help make these impor-tant Indian heritage sites available for the world to expe-rience online.”
The images of heritage sites thus captured will be avail-able on Google Maps and on Google’s World Wonders web-site after it’s published.
Google partners with ASI to create 360-degree online imagery of 100 heritage sites
29 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 heritage, conservation, tourism, culture, public spaces | vibrant cities
The Rajasthan govern-ment has approved a bud-get of �2 crore each for six forts namely Jais-almer, Chittorgarh, Kumb-halgarh, Amber, Gaga-ron and Ranthambore which have recently been declared as World Heri-tage Sites by the UNESCO. An apex committee meet-ing chaired by Chief Secre-tary C K Mathew decided this for the promotion and conservation of these
forts. Managers would be appointed for each of the World Heritage sites. Risk management plan and tour-ist management strategy are going to be prepared on priority basis and the con-servation progress report would be submitted to UNESCO by 2015.
The state is expecting an increase in the number of tourists with the inclusion of these six forts in World Heritage Sites list.
Karnataka Minister for Higher Education and Tourism RV Deshpande flagged off Hop-on, Hop-off (HOHO) buses on the Mysore Palace prem-ises recently. These buses are to be operated by the Karna-taka State Road Transport
Corporation (KSRTC) and will cover 16 tourist destina-tions. Some of them are Jagan-mohan Palace, Mysore Palace, Ganapathi Sachchidananda Ashram, Uttanahalli Temple, Chamundeshwari Temple atop Chamundi Hills and Dasara
exhibition grounds.The buses will be available
every 15 minutes from the city bus-stand and tourists can buy daily pass—silver costs ₨60 (regular buses) and gold costs ₨100 (air-conditioned Volvo buses).
Six forts in Rajasthan to get �12 crore for conservation
San Francisco: Japantown to have a blueprint for cultural heritage preservation
Sightseeing becomes easier at Mysore
A blueprint for San Fran-cisco’s Japantown, which was founded more than 100 years ago, has been proposed to preserving its cultural heritage.
The planning document highlights the importance of protecting Japantown’s cul-ture; 322 culturally impor-tant buildings, businesses,
organisations and events; and makes 19 recommenda-tions for economic develop-ment and investment.
San Francisco’s planners say it’s the first planning doc-ument to focus on the pres-ervation and promotion of a neighborhood’s cultural heritage, and could serve as a model for other locations.
Tamil Nadu: ₨250 crore oceanarium project at Mahabalipuram
Tamil Nadu government has planned to set up a world-class oceanarium project in Mahabalipuram on a 15-acre land belonging to the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation. The project will promote tourism and also provide facilities for propagat-ing awareness of the marine
environment and bio-diversity.The oceanarium is likely to
have a marine heritage pavil-lion, herbarium, polar pavilion, water promenade, aqua terrar-ium, lagoon, tunnel, deep sea forum, shark tank and touch tanks.
This ₨250 crore worth project which would be
implemented on the PPP (pub-lic private partnership) mode is expecting to use best technol-ogy and methodology to estab-lish the oceanarium. Mahab-alipuram, with various ancient monuments, is a UNESCO world heritage site and among the most visited places in the state.
Egypt: Replica of Tutankhamun’s tomb to divert tourists from threatened siteThe 3,000-year old Tut-ankhamun’s tomb in Lux-or’s Valley of the Kings is set to have an exact replica of it. Egyptian archaeological con-servation officials are hoping that the £420,000 project will prolong the life of the original and will also promote a new model of sustainable tour-ism and research in Egypt where many pharaonic sites are under severe threat.
Kent Weeks, a leading Egyptologist said, “It’s not just a way of protecting the tomb of Tutankhamun, but it’s a test case, a model that could be used to protect other sites across the coun-try.” The project is aiming to divert visitors away from the threatened original while still giving them the chance to experience what it is like inside.
urban neWs digest | november 2013 30happening cities | events
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi addressed the National Sum-mit on Inclusive Urban Development at Gandhinagar’s Mahatma Mandir on October 17. Modi affirmed that instead of treating urbanisation as a burden, it should be treated as an opportunity and a matter of strength. He said, “We kept expressing concerns about vil-lages reducing and the number of people in cities increasing. But what if we had
accepted the truth from Day 1? Urban-isation is not something on which we can express tears. It is not a challenge. Why not consider it as strength? Once you see it like an opportunity, work can be done effectively and there will be great results.”
He also shared the Gujarat govern-ment’s ‘Rurban Mantra’. In this context he said, “We came up with the ‘Rurban concept- Aatma Gaanv Ki, Suvidha She-her Ki (the spirit of the village and the facilities associated with a city)’.”
He talked about the success of initia-tives like the ‘Jyotigram Yojana’ which gave three phases of uninterrupted power to the villages due to which migration to the cities reduced. He opined that the vision of the Gujarat government is two-fold- to enable people to remain in the vil-lages and to strengthen the cities as well.
Speaking on the occasion, Takeshi
Yagi, Ambassador of Japan welcomed the idea of holding thematic sum-mits like this. Dr M Ramachandran, former Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development (Government of India) listed out the challenges faced by urban India today including water shortage, waste management, and sanitation.
Urban Development Minister (Gov-ernment of Gujarat) Anandiben Patel welcomed the dignitaries on behalf of the Government of Gujarat and talked about the role of cities in the growth of nations. She said that urbanisa-tion cannot be seen as a burden but
should be an opportunity. A coffee table book ‘Gujarat: Unveiling Urban Development; Emerging Trends’ was released by the Chief Minister on the occasion.
National Summit on Inclusive Urban Development 2013
Green Building Congress 2013 heralds new era in sustainable built environment
The 11th edition of Green Building Con-gress 2013 was held from October 24 to October 26 at Chennai by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The theme for the event was: ‘Futuristic Green Habitats & Technologies’. Over 2,000 national and international stake-holders attended the three-day event to share, learn and explore new business opportunities. Also over 100 latest and emerging green building products and technologies were displayed at the inter-national exhibition.
Dr K Rosaiah, Governor of Tamil Nadu, while delivering the chief guest address at the inaugural session on 24 October underlined the need that ‘Green’ should become a way of life and the con-cept of ‘Green’ should reach every nook and corner of the country. The Gover-nor also inaugurated a three-day inter-national exhibition where over 100 green building products and technologies were displayed. He also presented award to the winner of ‘IGBC Green-I Contest’
2013 and award to the winner of ‘IGBC Green Design Competition 2013’. Green Building Congress 2013 had two major events, namely, International Confer-ence on Green Buildings and Interna-tional Exhibition on Green Buildings.
On October 25, ‘IGBC Green Homes Detailed Reference Guide’ was released by Arun Kumar Misra, Secretary, Minis-try of Housing & Urban Poverty Allevi-ation. Dr Prem C Jain, Chairman IGBC, informed that the detailed reference guide was developed with the involve-ment of various architects, designers, builders and even those living in green homes.
Misra informed that in the coming four years, one million houses across the country would be constructed by the gov-ernment in different blocks and munic-ipalities. All these would go the greener way by design at the construction stage itself underlined Misra. The finances for greening will be a part of the project cost, added Misra. He also said that BMTPC under the ministry would work towards an MOU with IGBC to build the capaci-ties of the ministry staff by ways of organ-ising training and outreach programmes.
Further, Misra also called on the need to promote green building materials & technologies and alternative technolo-gies. The new upcoming housing pol-icy would also consider providing non-financial incentives to the construction
sector. This would go a long way in pro-moting green building and sustainable development, added Misra.
The Green Building Congress had over 60 parallel sessions over three days. There were panel discussions where all stakeholders, architects, builders, government and media shared their thoughts. A panel discussion on ‘The Future Habitats – How can we proactively make them greener?’ was also organised where experts on vari-ous subjects shared their thoughts and perspectives.
An important MoU was also inked with BCA, Singapore to promote green buildings in the country and explore new business opportunities. The Green Building Congress 2013 ended on a very positive note. With increased aware-ness and active participation of all the
stakeholders India is well poised to reach four billion sq ft by 2017, which would further reduce water and power con-sumption and enhance the quality of life.
The governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu would soon come up with mandatory provisions for introducing green building norms in public buildings and also implement energy conservation norms of respective Environment and Energy Departments.
31 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | NovEMBER 2013 events | happening cities
CII’s 4th Regional Conference on Infra-structure Project Management on the theme ‘Providing Consistent, Reliable and Efficient Project Delivery’ was held at Hotel Shangri – La, New Delhi. Dr EM Sudarsana Natchiappan, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, inau-gurated the conference. Dr Natchiappan stated that infrastructure development in India continues to be the focus for the government and the importance of
infrastructure for sustained economic development is well recognised.
Anshuman Magazine, Chair-man & Managing Director, CBRE South Asia said that billions of dol-lars are allocated towards infra-structure development but still the project gets delayed therefore this con-ference is focusing on a key issue in the sector – how do we provide consistent, reliable, and efficient project delivery.
The 1st International Conference on ‘Pro-moting Water Use Efficiency in Urban Sector to Address Climate Change’ was held on October 9 at Hotel Hyatt, New Delhi. The conference was organised by CII-Triveni Water Institute in partner-ship with United States Agency for Inter-national Development India. Suresh Prabhu, Member, Advisory Board CII- Triveni Water Institute and former Union Minister of Power, Heavy Indus-try and Public Enterprises, emphasised on the importance of water management
in the urban sector. Prabhu released CII-Triveni Water Institute’s Handbook on ‘Water Use Efficiency in Urban India’. Earlier, Debashree Mukherjee, CEO, Delhi Jal Board, said urban water man-agement is a key for ensuring availabil-ity given that around 22%-25% of water in Delhi is lost due to physical leakages. Dhruv Sawhney, Chairman, CII-Triveni Water Institute, presented a comprehen-sive picture of the growing water scar-city in India and the increasing stress on the ecosystems.
Ten prominent personalities and organ-isations were presented with the WB Honours 2013 - a unique recognition for excellence in the field of washroom design and development. The event was held amid the best of innovators, designers and achievers from various
areas of the washroom industry who gathered together for a unique cause.
Putting the focus on subjects like environment-friendly washrooms, efficient washrooms, technologically-driven washrooms, and other spectra in this space, WB Honours has been instituted to bring forth steady advance-ments made by hotels, airports, design-ers, and professionals from the world of architecture and design.
SG Deolalikar, Chairman Emer-itus, Indian Plumbing Association was awarded the WB Lifetime Achieve-ment Honour.
The Confederation of Indian Industry, the Euro India Centre and European Busi-ness & Technology Centre in partnership with the Government of Andhra Pradesh organised the sixth Euro India Summit on October 21 in Hyderabad. The theme of the summit was ‘Greening Cities’.
Deepa Dasmunsi, Minister of State, Urban Development during her address as Guest of Honour highlighted the cur-rent pace of urbanisation in the country and said the private sector needs to come together and institutionalise the frame-work to work collaboratively to ensure inclusive urbanisation.
M Maheedhar Reddy, Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh, in his inaugural address, threw light upon key initiatives undertaken by his government. Arun Maira, Member, Planning Commission in his keynote
address talked about various dimen-sions of architectural governance as a solution to the challenges towards build-ing greener cities.
Joao Cravinho, Ambassador, Delega-tion of the EU to India shared his per-spective on global approach towards sus-tainable urbanisation and said, “Local concerns and global concerns are two faces of the same coin which need to be combated.”
The other sessions for the day focused on smart and inclusive cities, waste management, sustainable urban mobility, energy efficiency, security, and human resource and capacity build-ing. In a special discussion on ‘Munic-ipal Governance in India and Europe’, Francisco Javier Leon de la Riva, Mayor, Vallodolid (Spain) and the European del-egation leader spoke about the need for smart cities.
4th Regional Conference on Infrastructure Project Management held in New Delhi
CII-Triveni & USAID organise conference on promoting water use efficiency
WB Honours 2013 recognises leaders in washroom design and innovation
6th Euro India Summit kicks off in Hyderabad
8 - 9 November, 2013NDMC Convention Centre, Parliament Street, New Delhi
The Grand, New Delhi
First IFAT India excites the marketAround 5,000 trade-fair visitors attended the premiere of IFAT India held from October 24 – 26 at the Bom-bay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai. A total of 131 exhibitors from 17 coun-tries presented the latest solutions and products for the environmen-tal technology sector and 62% of the exhibitors came from countries other than India.
S G Deolalikar is one of India’s fore-most consulting sanitary engineers. With over six decades experience in the Central PWD and prominent builders he has been associated with his consultancy services with
most buildings designed by lead-ing Indian architects. He has to his credit association with the con-struction of American Embassy building complex and many diplo-matic mission projects, as well as commercial and residential com-plexes, hospitals, hotels and indus-trial projects. It also includes proj-ects in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabhi, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq and erstwhile USSR. He is actively associated with standardisation work of Bureau of Indian Standards and is the Con-vener for the Plumbing Services Chapter in NBC 2005. He was also on the faculty of SPA Delhi. He is the Founder President and Chair-man Emeritus of Indian Plumbing Association”
december 3-6, 2013, manekshaw centre, new delhi
Postal Registration No. DL(S)-01/3406/2012-14RNI No. DELENG/2012/41753
Posted at NDPSO, New Delhi - 110 002 on 16th and 17th of every monthDate of Publication 10/11 of every month
SEND TO:
FAIRFEST MEDIA LTD216 A/1 GAUTAM NAGAR, GULMOHAR PARK,
NEW DELHI 110049Tel: (91) (11) 2686 6874
FOR SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES:[email protected]
SUBSCRIPTIO
N FORM
12 ISSUES ̀600/- ̀500/- ̀100/-REGULAR YOU SAVE
PARTICULARS (Please attach Business Card*)
FULL NAME (MR/MS/MRS/DR):
OCCUPATION:
DESIGNATION:
COMPANY NAME:
COUNTRY:
EMAIL:
MOBILE: TEL:
SIGNATURE: (*) mandatory
REGULAR USERS MAY AVAIL PAID SUBSCRIPTION AT A DISCOUNT
YES ! I want to Subscribe Cost per copy ̀ 50/-
FULL NAME (MR/MS/MRS/DR):
FULL ADDRESS:
AMOUNT
CHEQUE NO./DD NO. / CASH
DATED All cheques/ DD payable to Fairfest Media Ltd
TERMS & CONDITIONS: This is a limited period offer | Allow 5-6 weeks for processing of your subscription | Orders once placed will not be terminated or transferred | Replacements will be made upon receipt of the damaged copy within one week of delivery.
OFFER
www.urbannewsdigest.inFor regular newsletters, email: [email protected]
India’s first media platform for urban development stakeholders
NoW oNLINe
Follow us