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With fast-paced demographic growth and the resultant urban

explosion, India’s housing needs have been continuously increasing over the decades. This calls for the creation of housing stock for new families and transforming all the kutcha or tempo-rary housing to pucca permanent houses. India’s national housing need is of the order of 50 million units for the urban (20 million) and rural (30 million) areas.

Besides providing one of the basic fundamental necessities of life, housing is also an effective economic indicator with a multiplier effect for the creation of

jobs and triggering growth of around 270 building material industries and genera-tion of taxes and wages.

Land continues to be a contentious resource, and lack of land spaces for housing is a major constraint area. This is a major dampener. There is an imper-ative need for enhancing and doubling the urban land footprint for assembled land with infrastructure for meeting the mammoth housing needs, through new townships and urban peripheral expansion so that the land cost could be at a comfortable affordable range of 10% to 30%. Appropriate land pricing with

cross-subsidisation especially for the needs of EWS & LIG housing should be encouraged, so that within the overall land layout, the cost can be absorbed by the development.

Development control rules, land sub-division rules, planning standards and building rules need a major revamp with innovative tools to help augment the land availability for meeting the mam-moth housing needs. Optimal, intense and efficient use of land with mixed-use planning and medium to high density development, in comparison to very low

Affordable Housing – Thrust AreasIndia’s housing sector needs speedier and more appropriate solutions, that are safe, durable, affordable, socio-culturally acceptable and environment friendly, writes V Suresh, Advisor, Good Governance India Foundation and former CMD, HUDCO

Contd. on page 2...

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density development need to be encour-aged. It would be useful if global practices in many developed countries is availed for higher densities of development, with FAR/FSIs, ranging from 5 to 10, as against Indian cities adopting global FAR of 1 to 2.

India’s housing sector needs speed-ier and more appropriate solutions, that are safe, durable, affordable, socio-cultur-ally acceptable and environment friendly. More than 50% of India is located in vul-nerable areas, prone to some or many nat-ural calamities (earthquakes, cyclones, flooding, landslides, and tsunami) and the new housing stock has to be disaster-resistant and protected.

The increase in construction costs each year due to inflation makes it unaf-fordable. Innovative, cost-effective and proven construction technologies and construction process options, should

be used. Construction cost options need to be available in an affordable range between ₨500-₨1500 per sq ft for hous-ing needs of EWS, LIG and Affordable Housing. With massive skill upgrada-tion and demonstration efforts these need to be propagated and technolo-gies taken to the doorsteps of the peo-ple, backed with mass production and widespread retail out-letting of build-ing components and products.

Housing finance market has increased substantially with annual dis-bursements from HFC’s and banks now crossing ₨1,20,000 crores per year and likely to be ₨1.5 lakh crore annually by 2015. While HFCs and Bank loans are available to the LIG, MIG and HIG on a 10% band, this still does not address the needs of poor, either by HFCs or banks due to the informal sector characteristics of employment. The group that needs

affordable housing finance from lending institutions, including MFI, do not get it and even if available it is on a 17% to 25% band. The credit guarantee and interest subsidies schemes can help.

The housing schemes under JNNURM and RAY for the urban poor and families living in slums require a combined effort to tap savings, loans and subsidies for housing cost compo-nents of resources of land, infrastruc-ture, building materials, construction cost and finances. A thrust on incremen-tal housing for space, specifications and services linked with affordability lev-els hold the key to sustainable housing solutions.

The government could look at alter-native sources for meeting long-term financing needs by granting infra-structure status to the housing sector. Such a move would attract funds from

insurance companies, which are man-dated to invest 15% of their funds in social and infrastructure sector (as per IRDA regulations). Further, Provident/Pension Funds, a major source for sup-porting housing finance market with long-term lending in all developed coun-tries, should be tapped.

The strengths of the government/public sector with access to land and infrastructure development capabili-ties at the macro level should be imag-inatively dovetailed with the track record of the private sector for devel-opment of quality housing with definite timeframes. The joint initiatives would bring win-win positions to both the gov-ernment/public and private sector and more importantly to the community and consumers. The new mantra for afford-able housing delivery is public-private-peoples-partnership (PPPP) joint action.

“The problems of affordable and inclusive housing need the concerted efforts of central and state governments, as

well as private players, to resolve. My ministry has adopted a multi-pronged approach to solve the problem: We have two flagship programmes – Jawaharlal Nehru

National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) to provide capital subsidy through state governments for housing

and infrastructure for the urban poor, including slum dwellers. Under JNNURM I, we aim to complete one million houses. Under RAY, we are

targeting an additional one million houses to be completed by 2017.Availability of land for affordable housing is perhaps the most crucial

issue. Also efforts are being made to assign ‘infrastructure’ status to affordable housing.

The housing shortage has been estimated to be about 18 million, of which a majority – about 15 million – is on account of congestion

factors. Considering the extent of the problem, RAY aims to achieve the vision of a slum-free India by encouraging states/union territories to tackle the problem of slums in a definitive manner, by a multi-pronged approach focusing on: bringing all existing slums, notified or non-notified within the formal

system and enabling them to avail of the same level of basic amenities as the rest of the town; redressing the failures of the formal system that lie behind the creation of slums; and tackling the shortages of urban

land and housing that keep shelter out of reach of the urban poor and force them to resort to extra-legal solutions in a bid to retain their sources of livelihood and employment.”

ajay makenMinister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India

Contd. from page 1...


V P Baligar, Chairman and Managing Director of HUDCO, shares with Urban News Digest the ambitious plans of his corporation in the affordable housing sectorQ: With the massive housing ini-tiatives taken up in different parts of the country by various agencies of all shades, what are HUDCO’s ambitious plans to extend techno–financial support during 2013-14 and for the next five years? How many housing units are proposed to be supported under HUDCO’s assistance?

A: HUDCO is fully geared up to extend techno-financial support for provision of affordable hous-ing to all segments of the soci-ety, especially to the economically weaker sections and lower income groups. The Corporate Plan 2020 of HUDCO envisages a major focus and thrust on provision of social housing in the years to come. It aims to increase the social housing operations to a significantly higher level, so as to retain HUDCO’s repu-tation and role as the prime institu-tion for providing affordable hous-ing in the country. HUDCO’s plan

is to provide half a million houses in 2013-14 and to reach one million houses per annum in the next two to three years. Nearly 90% of these houses will be for the economically weaker sections of our society.

Q: Could you indicate the nature of funding support extended so far and benefits reaching out for all groups in general and EWS and LIG in par-ticular, including performance in 2012-13?

A: HUDCO has been extending significant financial support to the housing boards, development authorities and other para-statal institutions in the public sector, for providing housing, particularly for the weaker sections. HUDCO has a special orientation to social housing with particular refer-ence to EWS and LIG categories of households, with a relatively lesser interest rate (8-8.25% for EWS and 8.5% for LIG), higher extent of unit cost extended as loan, and with a relatively longer repayment period. Besides its own schemes, HUDCO has also been support-ing Government of India’s flag-ship programmes like JNNURM, RAY, ISHUP, Night Shelters,

Integrated Low Cost Sanitation Scheme , etc.

HUDCO, since its inception in 1970, has contributed significantly to the housing sector with its sup-port for over 15.57 million housing

units, of which about 14.40 mil-lion units (92.5%) are for the EWS/LIG beneficiaries. In the FY 2012-13, HUDCO sanctioned ̀ 7,637 crore for housing (out of the total sanction of `2,3974 crore) which would sup-port 4.39 lakh houses, out of which 4.25 lakh houses belong to EWS and LIG category i.e. 96.8%.

Q: Could you indicate the new operating terms of financial assis-tance for the EWS and LIG housing needs? Would the housing needs of the vulnerable groups get fur-ther reduction in interest rates or extent of financing and repayment options?

A: As mentioned earlier, HUDCO has a large and special orientation towards social housing with partic-ular reference to EWS and LIG cate-gories and also for vulnerable groups such as widows, differently abled, single woman above 35 years of age and natural calamity-affected areas, etc. HUDCO has a special interest rate for housing projects for such groups with the lowest interest rate of 8% with extent of loans up to 90% and longer repayment period of 15 years. HUDCO has set up an ‘Inno-vation Cell’ to bring out new prod-ucts to serve the sector better. One of the new products named ‘Rent-to-Own’ has already been launched which is expected to enable the lower segments of the salaried people, who otherwise are unable to own a house. Other products such as senior citizen housing, special housing for women are expected to come out in future.

Q: What are the plans for additional resource mobilisation from the domestic market and international agencies for the housing and urban development financing ? How suc-cessful has been the recent tax-free bond resource mobilisation efforts in two tranches?

A: HUDCO has a resource plan to mobilise `9,000 crore during the current financial year such as tax-free bonds, taxable bonds, NHB

Refinance Assistance scheme, com-mercial paper, public deposits, etc. as well as from international sources. In the last two years, HUDCO mobil-ised ̀ 7,401 crore through the tax-free bond route.

Q: Would the benefit of access to low cost resource mobilisation flow only to EWS and LIG or will it also bene-fit infrastructure financing?

A: It has always been the policy of HUDCO to pass on the benefits of low-cost resource mobilisation mainly for weaker section, housing and core infrastructure. HUDCO regularly reviews its financing norms to rationalise the lending rates so that the benefits of low cost resource mobilisation reach specifi-cally the EWS and LIG for housing and core infrastructure.

Q: Would HUDCO be extending assistance to state governments and housing and city agencies with con-sultancy assistance for design and development of project proposals for building designs and layouts with comprehensive inputs?

A: Yes, HUDCO has been providing consultancy assistance for design and development of project pro-posals for building designs and lay-outs. For this purpose, HUDCO has an exclusive ‘Design and Devel-opment’ Wing and also a spe-cialised ‘Urban & Regional Plan-ning’ Wing to cater to the needs of the cities.

“the corporate plan 2020 of huDco envisages a major focus and thrust on provision of social housing”

“There is a mammoth need for urban housing for the economically weaker sections (EWS) and low income groups, and for a multi-

pronged approach to make affordable housing a reality. The problems of slum housing for sheltering a population of nearly

90 million and the way forward to create slum-free cities need serious attention. A holistic approach for affordable housing and slum-free cities is required through

interest differential, cost-effective technologies and innovative use of land.”

arun Kumar Misra

Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty AlleviationGovernment of India


Q. With the closing years for JNNURM 1, how do you feel the efforts for housing, slum reha-bilitation and BSUP addressed issues? Which are the states that have done creditable work in these areas? What is the overall National Achievement over the last seven years since JNNURM has been implemented?

A: The two pro-poor reforms under Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing & Slum Development Programme (IHSDP), internal earmarking of local body budgets for basic services for the urban poor and earmarking of 20%-25% of developed land for EWS/LIG category, has been achieved by all Mission Cities (guidelines issued by all the concerned states). The seven-point charter reforms is well under progress and is now being achieved under various other programmes of MoHUPA as well as other ministries.

The states that have done cred-itable work under JNNURM are Karnataka, Tripura, Kerala and West Bengal.

Under JNNURM out of 15.67 lakhs approved dwelling units for construction, 6.73 lakhs units have been completed, out of which 4.46 lakhs dwelling units are occupied. Further, some 3.66 lakhs dwelling units are still under construction.

Q. What are the shape of things to come in JNNURM 2 for these sectors in general? What are the housing sector action plans and the new Urban Livelihood Mis-sion efforts?

A: JNNURM 2 will now be dis-seminated as RAY and Rajiv Rinn Yojana. The latter is basically a revision of the existing scheme of Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) into Rajiv Rinn Yojana for leverag-ing flow of institutional finance for housing EWS/LIG segments. It is also observed that current loan ceiling of ₨1 lakh under ISHUP Scheme is grossly insufficient to construct or purchase any house in the urban areas. Accordingly, it is proposed that loan limit be increased to ₨8 lakhs and interest

subsidy be provided at 5% on the loan upto ₨5 lakh, to promote housing for the EWS and LIG seg-ments – on annuity basis

“National Urban Livelihoods Mission” (NULM) focuses on the reduction of poverty and vulner-ability of the urban poor house-holds by enabling them to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment oppor-tunities. NULM aims to achieve :• Universal financial inclu-

sion, through opening of basic savings accounts, facilitating access to financial literacy, credit, affordable insurance, and remit-tance facilities to the urban poor and their institutions.• Socialmobilisationandinsti-

tution development by mobilisa-tion of urban poor households into Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations.• EstablishmentofCityLive-

lihoods Centre (CLC) to provide a platform whereby the urban poor can market their services and access information and other benefits.• Skill Training and Place-

ment: Skill training will be linked to accreditation and certification and preferably be undertaken on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode. It will involve reputed insti-tutes, including Industrial Train-ing Institutes (ITI), polytechnics, National Institute of Technol-ogy (NIT), industry associations, engineering colleges, manage-ment institutes, skill training cen-tres, foundations, etc.• Supporttourbanstreetven-

dors in the form of skill develop-ment, support to micro-enterprise development, credit enablement and pro-vending urban plan-ning along with supporting social security options for vulnerable groups such as women, SC/ST and minorities.• TherevisedNationalPolicy

on Urban Street Vendors, 2009 aims to foster congenial environ-ment for the urban street vendors to carry out their activities with-out harassment from any quar-ter and provides a mechanism of regulation of such activities to avoid congestion on sidewalks and to ensure free flow of traffic on roads.

‘The Street Vendors (Protec-tion of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2012’ has been introduced by the ministry in the Lok Sabha (Parliament) on 6th September 2012.

Q. Is poverty alleviation, socio-economic development with skill development a thrust area now along with Housing and BSUP?

A: These are being achieved under other programmes such as NULM and RAY.

Q. What are the new thrust areas for RAY to be operationalised in leading cities and states?

A: The states of Rajasthan, Kar-nataka, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura are leading in terms of preparation of Slum Free City Plans. In terms of Pilot DPR preparation, the states of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Odi-sha, Punjab and Rajasthan are the front runners.

Under RAY the preventive sec-tion of the Slum-Free City Plan of Action (SFCPoA) is a new thrust area with the guidelines prescrib-ing preparation of credit plans by the states. The credit plan is a mile-stone-oriented plan prepared to improve and work towards remov-ing the barriers to affordable hous-ing credit for the urban poor. In this as part of the SFCPoA the cities are asked to prepare typical credit pro-files of slums, document the bottle-necks from both the bankers side as well as the community side and ulti-mately providing targets for afford-able housing credit from both bank-ers and lenders side.

The SFCPoA toolkit also pre-scribes framing appropriate pol-icy reforms to ease the policy con-straints in provision of affordable housing for the urban poor.

Ajmer has completed this exer-cise and has prepared a credit pro-file under the SFCPoA as well as policy reforms that are now being taken up by the state for implementation.

Q. Are there any supportive inputs given to city/state govern-ments for project formulation given the complex interrelated issues for generating affordable housing for the urban poor with costing for all components being considered?

A: MoHUPA provides extensive hand-holding support to cities and states through the technical cell sup-ported by Department for Interna-tional Development (DFID) as well as through the National Resource Centres being funded under the RAY program for capacity build-ing to states and cities. In addi-tion MoHUPA funded by MoH-UPA under the preparatory phase of RAY has also made it mandatory to form City Level and State Level Technical cells with experts in the fields of urban, social, MIS, GIS etc.

The preventive section of the SFCPoA prescribes computation of housing shortage for urban poor using past supply trends and pro-jected future housing requirements and further necessitates computa-tion of the investment required to provide for the estimated housing

shortage to be made part of the over-all investment projections under the SFCPoA of RAY.

Q. Would HUDCO and BMTPC be extending technical assistance?

A: The pilot DPRs under RAY are currently being appraised by HUDCO and BMTPC.

Q. Would there be city wise pilots to make an impact? How many cities will be covered under RAY? Will this be over and above 63 JNNURM cities?

A: Under the preparatory phase of RAY states were encouraged to bring in pilot projects to kick-start the programme. Under this phase 45 pilot DPRs have been submitted by 15 states.

Some 195 cities are targeted under RAY and this overlaps with the 65 JNNURM cities.

Q. Is there a National Plan along with State/City governments to eradicate the slum problem within a time frame? How many cities have come forward with slum-free cities plan?

A: The Slum Free City Planning scheme of RAY is a National Plan that provides guidelines and tool-kits to facilitate the preparation of slum-free city plans by the cities.

The slum free plans involves nine-step scientific process whereby an updated slum list is prepared in consultation with stakeholders, slum boundaries are marked using GPS and slums are located on geo-referenced satellite imageries. The community is also involved in the mapping and slum surveys, ensur-ing this is a participatory as well as scientific process.

Some 21 cities have formally sub-mitted their SFCPoAs to MoHUPA.

Q. Is the Ministry of HUPA mak-ing special efforts with state/city governments for making available land at affordable costs in vari-ous cities for making Affordable Housing a reality?

A: The National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy 2007 provides spatial incentives like relaxation of Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for ensuring that 20%-25% of the FAR are reserved for EWS / LIG and issuance of Trans-ferable Development Rights (TDR) for clearance of transport bottle-necks in the inner-city areas and availability of additional FAR in Outer Zones will be promoted with a view to meeting the housing short-age amongst EWS/LIG.

One of the pro-poor reforms under JNNURM was mandatory reservation of 20-25% of developed land for EWS/LIG for which guide-lines have been issued by all mis-sion cities.

“NULM focuses on the reduction of poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor households”In his first interview with Urban News Digest, Sanjeev Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director (JNNURM), Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India speaks about JNNURM, RAY, NULM and much more


Shelter is a basic human need next only to food and clothing. The mush-

rooming growth of slums and the sight of people living in poor conditions in Indian cities are enough to reveal the huge urban housing shortage that the country is facing.

A Technical Group headed by Dr Amitabh Kundu, Professor of Eco-nomics, Jawaharlal Nehru University was set up by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation to esti-mate the urban housing shortage for the 12th Five Year (2012-17). The Report of the Technical Group has estimated the housing shortage to be 18.78 million, out of which 56.18% is in the economically weaker segments and 39.44% is in the lower income group categories.

Meanwhile, consultancy firm Jones Lang Lasalle has indicated that the country falls short of 26.5 million afford-able housing units. In its latest report on affordable housing, it has said that the availability of affordable housing in adequate numbers is one of the greatest necessities of urban India.

Report of the Task Force on Promoting Affordable Housing

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) is the apex authority of the Government of India at the national level to formu-late policies, sponsor and support pro-gramme, coordinate the activities of various central ministries, state gov-ernments and other nodal authorities and monitor the programmes concern-ing all issues of urban employment, poverty and housing in the country. From the scale of the problem facing

the housing sector in the country it is clear the public sector and a few private players alone cannot address the prob-lem. Thus, to realistically address this huge challenge, the housing and hous-ing finance markets should be made more inclusive by also working for the poor.

It is within this context that the MoH-UPA, set up a ‘Task Force on Promot-ing Affordable Housing’ on November 26, 2010, for developing transparent qualified criteria and a separate set of guidance for affordable housing in PPP projects for circulation to states, aimed at developing recommendations to cre-ate an enabling framework for increased private sector participation in affordable housing.

Affordable housing as defined by this task force under the chair-manship of Arun Kumar Misra, Sec-retary, MoHUPA in its report is as follows:“Individual dwelling units with a carpet area of not more than 60 sq mt and preferably within the price range of five times the annual income of the household as notified, either as a single unit or part of a building complex with multiple dwelling units.”

Without getting into technicalities of the definition, typically affordable hous-ing finance caters to the housing needs of families with incomes of ₨20,000 per month to ₨50,000 per month.

Key recommendations of the Task Force

The MoHUPA will implement rec-ommendations of the task force report on affordable housing in the next two years. Some of the important recom-mendations are:

Affordable Housing criteria and core definitions

The task force suggests a set of ‘core criteria’ should be adopted, that should form the basis of all policies/schemes at national as well as state level to ensure there is a synergy and a shared objec-tive across all governmental efforts. The ‘core criteria’ suggested in these recom-mendations are in terms of ranges so as to allow for some flexibility in implement-ing agencies to respond to ground real-ities and market conditions in the vast diversity of cities across the country.

Sizes of EWS and LIG dwelling units and method of measurement (carpet area)

The recommendations on the size of affordable housing dwelling units are:

21-27sq m carpet area for Economically Weaker Section (EWS); 28-40 sq m car-pet area for Lower Income Group (LIG-A) and 41-60 sq m carpet area for Upper Lower Income Group (LIG-B). Income criteria based on income ceiling of households

Based on the results of calculations, the maximum household income for the EWS and LIG category are recom-mended to be ₨8,000 and ₨16,000 per month and since many households in this category do not have regular monthly income an annual income of ₨100,000 for EWS and ₨200,000/ for LIG households

could also be used.The task force also felt that for cities

and urban agglomerations with a popu-lation of more than a million state gov-ernments could consider an increase of upto a maximum of 25% on the recom-mended household income levels men-tioned above, if deemed necessary, based on proper justification.

Supply side financial incentivesThe task force strongly recommends

states to consider concessions in devel-opment related charges as best suited to their condition to encourage affordable housing projects.

The task force recommends that MoHUPA pursue with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to include the

entire capital investment in rental hous-ing as eligible deduction under 35AD (5) (ac) of the IT Act. The Task Force also recommends that the 35 AD conces-sion should be available to all projects approved under the Affordable Hous-ing in Partnership Scheme.

The task force recommends that including affordable housing as infra-structure facility will also assist the financiers of such projects to be eligi-ble for a host of tax concessions other-wise currently available to infrastruc-ture projects. The task force feels this will go a long way in reducing the cost

Making cities inclusive and humane

“Our cities are not equipped with adequate housing or

infrastructure to tackle the increasing rural to urban migration, which

results in systems outside the formal frameworks such as proliferation of slums

and informal employment. The appropriate policy intervention would be

to strategically address this problem by planning for prevention of future slums, and also integrate that with the

flagship programmes of MoHUPA like RAY. Slum prevention can be realised by planning for affordable housing for the urban poor to address the future housing shortage for this sector by appropriately allocating the target stock for the

urban poor amongst the public agencies, private builders engaged in supply of affordable housing as well as large

industrial houses for their share of employee housing for the urban poor. Giving infrastructure status to the housing sector will improve the access to funding and help in creating more

affordable housing stock in the country by improvement in access to institutional funds. Infrastructure status ensures the

sector becomes entitled to various government incentives, subsidies and tax benefits. It also opens the sector up for

institutional funding. All this will translate into more supply of affordable housing, which will help maintain economies of

scale and tackle the affordable housing shortage in the country. It can also mean the government releases land specifically for affordable housing in central locations.”

D s NegiDirector, National Buildings Organisation

Contd. on page 6...


of the affordable housing dwelling units and incentivise the development of such projects.

An advisory should be issued rec-ommending that recognised provident fund should be encouraged to invest in affordable home projects that meet the investment rating norms of such funds. The Task Force recommends that MoH-UPA should take up with the Ministry of Finance to permit Life Insurance Compa-nies (other than LIC) to invest in Afford-able Home Project Finance subject to usual commercial considerations. LIC and HUDCO must also be encouraged to invest in SPVs that undertake afford-able home projects.

While Foreign Direct Investment is allowed in housing projects, the task force recommends that special dis-pensation should be made for afford-able housing projects. The criteria for minimum built-up area should be brought down from 50,000 sq m to 20,000 sq m and the minimum invest-ment brought down from $5 million to $2 million. Reducing timelines for approval of projects

States should take up measures to establish a single-window, fast-track approval process. A simplified set of reg-ulations and procedures for the issue of building permits, accompanied by clear instructions/checklists/guidelines/man-uals on how to submit an application is required. Creation of an institutional mechanism to facilitate faster conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural land within the boundary of the urban planning area where the land is ear-marked for residential use in the master plan. States should ensure streamlining of all state and local clearances to facil-itate approval within a maximum of 60 days.

Streamlining and fast-tracking of cen-tral government clearances from Minis-try of Environment & Forests, Archae-ological Survey of India (ASI), Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Ministry of Defence needs to be pursued by the central government as per recommenda-tions being worked out by the commit-tee on streamlining approval process. The affordable housing projects should have a special dispensation in getting clearances from the Ministry of Envi-ronment & Forests and the threshold for such projects should be increased from 20,000 sq m to 50,000 sq m.

Increasing land supply States and cities should make a full

inventory of their land holdings in cit-ies and constitute a land bank and pre-pare an asset management plan for better management of the available land.

The task force is of the opinion that

even with the support of a set of incen-tives, the reform in JNNURM pro-gramme for reservation of 20% of developed land (10% of gross land) for plotted housing development schemes for the urban poor, would be too high and beyond the cross subsidy capacity of both the developers/projects as well as the buyers.

The task force would like to recom-mend that the reservation requirement under the RAY programme should be at least 15% to 20% of developed land or at least 35% of the dwelling units (DUs) in each project with a plot size of minimum hectare. The 35% of the DUs, reserved at the project level, should be for EWS and LIG Category with at least 25% of these DUs are of the EWS category. Simul-taneously with this reservation the state governments should also provide compensatoryFSI.

Increasing FSI and providing TDR facilities The task force recommends that

increasing FSI/FAR and providing Transferable Development Rights (TDR) approach is to be used in two situations. Firstly, FAR/FSI should be increased in all affordable housing projects where the FSI/FAR is lower than 1.75 to allow for increased cross subsidy possibility. Secondly in situations where under the land reservation reform condition under the RAY Scheme, where a portion of the land/FAR is handed over to the govern-ment, additional /compensatory FSI at least equal to the FSI actually consumed for EWS/LIG segment in an automatic route can be offered to the developer. This additional FSI, if not utilised on the same project land, could be given in the form of TDR, through a zonal planning system, to be used in other parts of the town as per norms and guidelines fixed by the state government in this regard. In both situations, states and ULBs may be required to also increase the applica-ble density levels.

Policy support for the promotion of mass housing construction technologies

MoHUPA should put in efforts towards standardisation of norms and building codes across different regions of the country, which could help in devel-opment and use of mass housing con-struction technologies. These technol-ogies if used at scale could reduce the time required in construction and would finally reduce the cost of dwelling units. Some examples of technological innova-tions and standardisations at the struc-tural level could be:

a) Structural uniform criteria for symmetrical structures; b) load bearing monolithic structures; c) low rise build-ings with monolithic structures; d) mat foundations and e) soil improvement technologies.

Priority sector lending The task force therefore recommends

that the National Housing Bank may further develop suitable mechanism (in terms of refinance schemes, promotional and developmental endeavours, etc.) to encourage increased flow of loans from housing finance companies to EWS/LIG segments, either through a priority sec-tor lending framework or other appro-priate measures.

The task force recommends that in a situation where banks are unable to achieve this sub-target for EWS/LIG segments, the banks may be permitted to make available undisbursed amounts for a ‘EWS/LIG Urban Hous-ing and Infrastructure Fund’ on the lines of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).

It also recommends the cost of the dwelling unit in the housing projects sanctioned by banks exclusively for the purpose of construction of houses to economically weaker sections and low income groups, be increased from ₨5 lakhs to ₨10 lakh per dwelling unit, to be considered as part of the Bank’s Priority Sector lending.

Suggestions to recast the AHPS schemeThe task force has also made a com-

prehensive set of recommendations related to the recast of the Affordable Housing in Partnership Scheme of the Government of India, which includes directing the AHP grants to EWS dwell-ing units alone; development of state level schemes to ensure beneficiary identi-fication; streamlining and raising the subsidy amounts as well as a smoother process of ensuring that the subsidy is delivered to the end beneficiary.

Private sector forays into affordable hous-ing market

Last year, Smart Value Homes (SVHL), a 100% subsidiary of Tata Hous-ing Development Company (Tata Hous-ing), India’s fastest growing pan-India real estate developer, announced its foray into Bengaluru with the launch of its landmark affordable housing brand–New Haven. Announcing the launch of New Haven, Bengaluru, Brotin Banerjee, Managing Director and CEO, Tata Hous-ing, said, “Envisaging the rising demand

for affordable homes with premium facil-ities in the Silicon Valley of India, we are pleased to bring this iconic and success-ful affordable housing brand for the peo-ple of Bengaluru.”

This year, Tata Housing also signed an agreement with the Gujarat government to invest ₨3,500 crore to build afford-able homes at Ahmedabad. “As part of our long term strategy, we are looking at creating homes in the emerging Tier I and Tier II cities. With Gujarat and spe-cially Ahmedabad being one of India’s most desirable cities to live in, this MoU will support our efforts in building sus-tainable townships for urban dwellers at affordable price points,” Banerjee said.

Low-cost housing venture Value and Budget Housing Corporation (VBHC) is looking at expanding its presence in northern India, largely through joint developments. The company, which has been in talks with International Finance Corporation (IFC) since last year to raise funds by diluting some stake, said a deal would be inked shortly. VBHC also plans to triple its built-up area in the next three years to become a pan-India player in the affordable housing segment.

“We are looking to raise about ₨50-75 crore from IFC, the private invest-ment arm of World Bank. The proceeds will be used to launch nine projects across India,” Rajeev Talwar, Director and Head of northern region, VBHC, said.

VBHC, founded by PS Jayakumar and Jerry Rao (founder of MphasiS), former Citibankers, aims to develop a million affordable homes across 10 cities. It also has funding from HDFC, India Finan-cial Inclusion Fund and Bessemer Ven-ture Partners.

The company, which recently entered Bhiwadi, said it would be expanding to Amritsar, Ludhiana, Pune, Hyderabad, and the National Capital Region in the affordable housing category. VBHC’s houses are priced between ₨6.5 lakh and ₨20 lakh and it offers studio, 1BHK and 2BHK flats.

Role of industry bodiesIndustry bodies, such as National

Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) and Confederation of Real

“The approach for a slum-free city plan should be followed in

a step-by-step manner: assessment of present status of slums;

formulation of slum development options; formulation of slum preventive strategy by identifying existing housing

shortage, future housing gaps, supply and demand constraints; formulation of future supply options and

policy reforms; computing investment requirements and making a financing plan; formulating a credit plan;

institutional arrangements for implementation of the plan and finalisation of SFCPoA.”

Vineeta HariharanUrban Policy Specialist

Department for International Development, Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation


Contd. on page 7...


Models of Affordable Housing in RajasthanModel No. 1: Mandatory provisionsRajasthan Housing Board will construct at least 50% houses/ flats of EWS/LIG category in its schemes. Another 20% of the houses/ flats to be constructed for MIG-A category.

All Urban Local Bodies, including Jaipur Development Authority, Jodh-pur Development Authority, Urban Improvement Trusts and Municipal bodies to allot/construct at least 25% houses/flats of EWS/LIG category in their residential/ housing schemes. Another 20% of the houses/ flats will be allotted to MIG-A category. Private developers will reserve 15% of the dwell-ing units to be used for EWS/LIG hous-ing in each of their Township/Group Housing Schemes.

Model No. 2: Private developers on land owned by themThe selected developers to take up con-struction of EWS/LIG flats (G+2/G+3 format) on minimum 40% of the total land set apart for housing scheme under the Rajasthan Affordable Housing Policy, 2009.

The built up EWS/LIG flats to be handed over to the nodal agency (Rajasthan Avas Vikas And Infrastruc-ture Limited) at pre-determined prices, to be allotted to the eligible beneficiaries by the nodal agency.

The developer would be free to con-struct MIG/HIG flats on remaining land as per his choice.

Several incentives offered to develop-ers like double of the normal FAR, TDR facility, waiver of EDC, building plan approval fee, conversion charges, 10% of the total land allowed for commercial use, fast track approval, etc.

Model No. 3: Private developers on acquired landThe selected developer can take up con-struction of EWS/LIG flats (G+2/G+3) on the land under acquisition by ULBs. The land would be made available to the developer on payment of compensation (Land Acquisition cost + 10% adminis-tration charges). All other parameters to be followed and incentives to the developer would be as per Model No. 2.

Model No. 4: Private developers on government landEarmarked government land to be offered free of cost to the developer to be selected through an open bidding pro-cess. The developer offering the maxi-mum number of EWS/LIG flats (Built up, G+2/G+3 formats) free of cost to the ULB would be awarded the project. At least 50% houses should be of EWS category.

The developer shall be free to use the remaining land as per his choice for res-idential purpose with 10% for commer-cial use. All other parameters to be fol-lowed and incentives to the developer would be as per Model No. 2.

Model No. 5: Slum housingThe model is based on various schemes approved by the Government of India and also on the lines of ‘Mumbai Model’ of slum redevelopment with private sector participation.

Source: Rajasthan Affordable Housing Policy, 2009

Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) have put their best efforts in promoting affordable housing. Repre-sentatives from both NAREDCO and CREDAI were also members of the Task Force on Promoting Affordable Housing.

Last year, in a proposal submitted to the MoHUPA, NAREDCO asked the union government to incentivise afford-able housing projects developed by pri-vate sector on its own land. “The formal banking institutions should adopt inno-vative practices for sanctioning loans to informal sector on the pattern of private and micro finance housing companies. In this connection separate credit appraisal norms for home buyers in informal sec-tor are required,” NAREDCO said.

Recently, CREDAI called upon the Centre to issue guidelines to states regarding online approvals and a single-window system. CREDAI has embarked on a multi-pronged agenda to work closely with various governments with a focus on affordable housing, green buildings and water harvesting, and skill development among construction work-ers. “The task force report on affordable housing is already with the government and we will impress upon the concerned departments to facilitate its implemen-tation for ensuring that the millions of homeless fulfill their dreams of owning a house,” said Lalit Kumar Jain, Chair-man, CREDAI .

Urban poverty alleviation and housingPoverty increases the risk of home-

lessness. Slum-dwellers, who make up a third of the world’s urban population, live in a poverty no better, if not worse, than rural people, who are the tradi-tional focus of the poverty in the develop-ing world. Nearly one in every six urban Indian residents lives in a slum, newly released Census data shows. In India the MoHUPA launched the ‘Rajiv AwasYo-jana’ (RAY) scheme envisioning a ‘Slum-free India’ through the legal empower-ment of slum dwellers by giving them legal entitlement to dwelling spaces at an

affordable cost. RAY intends to support states that are willing to assign property rights to slum-dwellers. It aims to create enabling conditions that will encourage states to tackle slums in a definitive man-ner by (i) bringing existing slums within the formal system and enabling them to avail of the same amenities as the rest of the town; (ii) redressing the failures of the formal system that lie behind the cre-ation of slums; and (iii) tackling the short-ages of urban land and housing that keep shelter and housing out of the reach of the poor and force them to resort to extralegal solutions in a bid to retain their sources of livelihood. RAY focuses on ‘in-situ’ rede-velopment of slums.

It adopts a ‘whole city’, ’whole slum’, ‘all slums’ approach and seeks to develop the supply of urban infrastructure and affordable housing for future populations entering the city. RAY targets such issues through policy, planning and regulatory reforms. RAY envisages a strong linkage with livelihoods issues of the slum dwell-ers and the urban poor so that they are not dislocated from their workplaces.

Livelihood of the urban poor, will get its due focus in the 12th Five Year Plan.

The Approach Paper for the 12th Five Year Plan has identified, as part of its strategy, one of its key priority areas the task of addressing “the basic needs of the urban poor who are largely employed in the informal sector and suffer from multiple deprivations and vulnerabil-ities that include lack of access to basic amenities such as water supply, sanita-tion, health care, education, social secu-rity and decent housing ”(Planning Com-mission, 2011).

As the nodal ministry for urban pov-erty alleviation, in order to focus policy and programmatic attention on the issue of urban livelihoods in a structured way, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Pov-erty Alleviation has envisaged to launch a ‘National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM). The mission of the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) is: “To reduce poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor households by enabling them to access gainful self employment and skilled wage employment opportuni-ties, resulting in an appreciable improve-ment in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroots level institutions of the poor.”

“There is an affordability band to every housing

segment. Overall in India the bulk of the demand for housing in

urban areas is in the up to ₨40 lakh band. Demand in the peripheries of

cities for affordable housing is greater and bulk of this demand is in the ₨10 to ₨20 lakh range.

Rental housing in cities should be encouraged.”Jayashree Kurup

Head – Content & Research, MagicBricks.com

Broadly there are four initiatives in Gujarat to deal with affordable hous-ing. The first is under the Regulations for Rehabilitation and Redevelopment of the Slums, 2010. It is aimed at reha-bilitation of slums. Similar to the SRA model of Mumbai, the public sector does not build or finance anything, its only involvement is through regula-tions and incentives such as additional FSI. The developer develops projects in a slum which includes providing hous-ing at no cost to the existing slum dwell-ers. For the scheme to be approved for construction a society of individual slum dwellers must be formed and 75% of these individuals must agree to the scheme. This scheme is only viable where the land value is very high. The scheme applies to existing slums.

The second scheme is under the Regulations for Residential Townships Act, 2009. It relates to private devel-opers who want to develop residential townships. Private developers must purchase at least 40 hectares of land (in cases where Urban Development Authorities exist) or 20 hectares of land (in other relevant authority areas). Ten percent of the area must be reserved for housing for the Economically Weaker Section.

The third scheme is operated under the town planning schemes, where every owner within specific bound-aries must provide a certain percent-age (30%-40%) of the land to govern-ment. Government pays market rate for the land, provides all the infra-structure and the value of the owner’s land tends to go up subsequently as a result. This increases the efficiency of the plot by 10%-15%. The goal of this scheme is to provide land for the future urban development and housing. Ten percent of the land is reserved for affordable housing.

The fourth scheme is the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act. The Gujarat government has repealed the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act and transferred surplus land to urban local bodies at nominal rates for projects focused on EWS/LIG hous-ing. The government has also come out with special provisions for develop-ment of low cost housing, where the owner/authorised developer will pro-vide a minimum built up area of 20 sq m subject to a minimum carpet area of 14 sq m to slum dwellers along with water supply, drainage and electricity.

Affordable Housing: Gujarat Model


URBAN NEWS DIGEST | MAy 2013 • 8focUs ciTy

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, is located at the centre of the valley of

Kashmir. It is one of the major tour-ist centres in India. At an altitude of 5,200 feet above the sea level, the city is famous for its picturesque sites, sweet water lakes, exotic gardens, charming mountain views and popular tourist places. The city presently has a popu-lation of around 13 lakhs and is spread over an area of 300 sq km.

Dal lake development In a bid to lessen the environmental damage and reduce noxious waste ele-ments, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has instructed the state govern-ment to shift the houseboats along the Boulevard road to Doldum area.

Doldum is a 300-kanal (20 kanal make one hectare) land mass inside Dal Lake identified by J&K Lakes and

Waterways Development Author-ity (LAWDA) as an exclusive place for the houseboats with eco-friendly amenities.

“We want to develop an exclu-sive area that will promote high-end tourism for houseboats. Second we want to solve the sanitation issues. Whatever the toilet waste houseboats generate goes into the lake presently. We will be connecting the houseboats to the sewerage treatment plant by the pipes so that the waste is treated,” Irfan Yasin, Vice-Chairman of LAWDA, said.

waste managementJammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently approved the setting up of two bio-medical waste man-agement projects in Jammu and Srinagar. The ₨7.40 crore-projects will help in the disposal of waste products generated in hospitals within 150 km radius in the cit-ies of Srinagar and Jammu. He emphasised the need for early iden-tification of possible sites for establish-ment of such projects and directed the health department to put together a team of officers from health, revenue and pollution control departments for the purpose.

Terming bio-waste management the need of the hour, the CM underscored the importance of proper and hygienic disposal of waste generated in various health units and hospitals, and stressed that it should be the predominant area of importance for a state’s health and medi-

cal education department.Meanwhile, the Srinagar Munici-

pal Corporation is organising aware-ness programmes on waste segregation at various areas in the city, including Raj Bagh, Jawahar Nagar and Hyder-pora. Colour-coded bins are distrib-uted among the households during such programmes. “The non-biodegrad-able waste (plastic, bottles) shall be col-lected once a week, whereas the biode-gradable waste (kitchen waste, leftovers, vegetables) shall be lifted on rest of the days. This will help in decomposing the

waste separately and scientifically at our landfill dumping site Achan where SMC has recently started the bio reme-dial plant to make the place stink-free,” said Fayaz Ahmed Balla, Joint Commis-sioner (Adm), SMC.

housing Emphasising the urgent need for devel-opment of new housing colonies in the

adjacent areas of Srinagar and Jammu cities, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently asked the Housing Department to come up with comprehensive projects

in this regard. “In order to decongest the twin capi-

tal cities and provide adequate housing facilities to people taking cognisance of the rapid growth, the creation of modern townships are need of the hour,” he said.

Vice Chairman of Srinagar Devel-opment Authority (SDA) Muhammad Shafi Rather has outlined many plans for the city and promised that SDA will

not miss any deadline on Master Plan. Rather believes the city should go verti-cal as haphazard construction in urban areas is leading to scarcity of open space.

srinagar: Blending tourism with sustainable urban development

9 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | mAy 2013 focus city

“Land is shrinking and prices are touching the sky. People are forced to move to peripheries or live in poor con-ditions. It is high time that we go verti-cal and meet the challenge of providing better living conditions to the people. We have identified areas where we can come up with flats and apartments for the peo-ple,” Rather said. “We have acquired some 4,200 kanal of land near Rakh-e-Gund Akshah and are coming up with a satellite township there with around 15,000 dwelling units,” he added.

He also expressed his wish for follow-ing the Jaipur and Chandigarh model in beautification of the city.

“I always appreciated the way Jai-pur has preserved its architecture that reflects in its structures and the way Chandigarh came up as a properly designed city. I will try to keep that in mind while preparing the designs for these apartments. I would especially love to see apartments coming at Rakh-e-Gund Akshah on that pattern. More-over, Kashmiri architecture and culture will be kept in mind while building these apartments,” he said.

transport The city is well connected by many high-ways, including National Highway 1A and National Highway 1D.

Srinagar Airport offers regular domestic flights to Leh, Jammu, Chan-digarh and Delhi and occasional inter-national flights.

Srinagar is a major station on the 119-km-long Kashmir railway that con-nects the city with various parts of India.

In order to ensure congestion free transport facilities along with better road connectivity for the people of Sri-nagar city, the Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Shah has said sincere efforts have already been made in this regard. He has also released ₨3 lakh for the shifting of utilities on the roadsides for better traffic management.

Shah has asked his officers to remove all the bottlenecks on the roads includ-ing construction materials, within a very short time for smooth movement of traffic on the roads of Srinagar city. He has also directed for replacing of worn out electric poles and pipes besides shifting of other utilities.

The chief minister of the state, said a proposal for multimode mobility proj-ects for Srinagar and Jammu cities involving over ₨40,000 crore is under process.

“Since the state is not in a position to take up these huge multi-faceted proj-ects on its own alone, as such, the Gov-ernment of India is being approached to get the financial assistance in a phased

manner so that these projects are com-pleted and the two cities provided with modern multi-mode transport facility,” he said.

The chief minister said that as the Chairman of Economic Reconstruc-tion Agency (ERA), he has instructed the agency to focus on taking up huge projects like flyovers, mega-water sup-ply schemes, large sewerage and drain-age programmes and other high cost big-ticket projects that require regular flow of funds for completion in a time-bound manner.

tourismLast year, over 1.4 million tourists vis-ited the Kashmir Valley, which is an all-time record. In 2011, one million tourists came to the Valley.

The Mughal Gardens, Dal Lake, Nigeen Lake and the shrines of the saints adorn the city of Srinagar. The houseboats offer luxury accommoda-tion and there are also some very good hotels on the banks of Dal Lake. The Lalit and Taj are the only five star hotels in Srinagar. Lal Chowk in Srinagar is a popular shopping place for tourists. Dal Lake also has a big floating market for local shopping. Thus these two markets make Srinagar a shopping paradise for people visiting Kashmir.

Hotels in Srinagar’s Dal Lake area are running with 60% occupancy during summer days and so are the houseboats

on the lake. “This time our occupancy is 60%,” Muhammad Azim Tuman, Pres-ident of the Houseboat Owners Asso-ciation, said. “We are expecting more arrivals after the middle of this month when schools get their summer recess in the other states. Hopefully, we have an excellent season ahead,” he added.

Rouf Tramboo, President of the Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK), said, “The tourism scene is good this time, but we are expecting more arrivals after May when the sum-mer holidays begin in other states.”

The state government has recently organised a tourism festival in the state, apart from running advertise-ments in newspapers and other publi-cations outside the state, to give a boost to the industry.

A predominant section of Srinagar is occupied by Dal Lake where a large population of the city dwells. These peo-

ple are mainly dependent on the tour-ism sector. The boulevard road along the banks of Dal Lake is a famous lakeside road packed with food joints, hotels, restaurants and showrooms. A walk on boulevard road is highly preferred by tourists as they can see the beautiful views of Dal Lake from there.

Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Gar-den previously named as Model Flori-

culture Centre, in Srinagar, is the larg-est tulip garden of Asia, spread over an area of about 12 hectares. When it was opened to the public on March 27, 2013, more than 45,000 tourists have visited the Tulip Garden in Sri-nagar, as of April. “The response so far has been very good,” Javaid

Ahmad Shah, the official in charge of the garden, said.

Summer holidays in schools will start soon across the country and there is an expectation of a heavy influx of tourists in the coming days, a senior official of the State Tourism Depart-ment said. He said the Tulip Garden has become a key attraction for tour-ists visiting Kashmir at this time of the year. “The Garden has helped in not only advancing the tourism season in the Valley but has also become an added attraction for them to stay longer,” the official said.

A recent survey reveals that pictur-esque Srinagar is the most preferred tourist destination across India.

The ‘Popular Summer Des-tination 2013’ was conducted by railyatri.in, the official data research and development partner of the Indian Railways.

Data was collected from 2,000 respondents via an online poll con-ducted on various platforms including the official website of Indian Railways and popular social media sites.

More than 76% of the respondents preferred hill stations for a holiday and a majority of them (63%) favoured hill stations in northern India, the survey revealed. Srinagar (29%) secured the maximum votes from the respondents followed by Shimla (22%) and Darjeel-ing (12.5%).

challenges In Srinagar, Regal Chowk and its adja-cent areas have been desperate for a proper drainage system while the gov-ernment until now has failed to come up with a plausible solution.

Even a little rainfall leaves the busy commercial hub immersed in knee-deep waters as the age-old drainage sys-tem has become redundant, because no action has been initiated for its revamp.

The area shopkeepers have been approaching the concerned author-ities to put in place a proper drain-age system in the area. “Till now there has been no step forward,” said shopkeepers of the area under the banner of Regal Chowk Traders Asso-ciation (RCTA).


Jammu: A developing urban landscape

Jammu is the major and largest city in the Jammu region, the winter capital of Jammu and

Kashmir and located on the banks of Tawi River. Jammu is also a well-known destination for pil-

grims because of the presence of a high number of historical temples and old mosques in the city.

Jammu city lies at the rough edges of low heights at the Shivalik hills. It is surrounded by the Shiva-lik range to the north, east and south-east while the Trikuta Range surrounds it in the north-west. It is approximately 600 km from the national cap-ital, New Delhi.

Jammu city serves as the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir from November to April when all the offices move from Srinagar to Jammu. Srinagar serves as the summer capital from May to October.

transportJammu city has a railway station named Jammu Tawi, which is well connected with major cities of India. The Jammu Tawi station was started in 1975 and is an initiation point for Express trains. Now the Kashmir Railway is being built to connect the

state of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country. With the starting of the Kashmir Rail-way, Jammu Tawi will assume immense impor-tance. Then all trains to the Kashmir Valley will pass through Jammu Tawi.

The National Highway 1A that passes through Jammu connects it to the Kashmir valley. National Highway 1B connects Jammu with Poonch town. Jammu is just 80 km away from Kathua town while it is 68 km from Udhampur city.

Jammu Airport is located about 7 km from Jammu. It has direct flights to Srinagar, Delhi, Chandigarh, Leh, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The city has various mini buses for local trans-port that run on some defined routes. Besides these, auto-rickshaw, local taxis and cycle rick-shaws services are also available.

JnnurM projects Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has fixed a timeline for implementation of various programmes under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal


Mission (JNNURM) in the cities of Jammu and Srinagar.

He has also ordered weekly reviews of the pro-gramme by the Chief Secretary, fortnightly and monthly progress monitoring by the Minister of State for Housing and Deputy Chief Minister, while the Chief Minster will himself take stock of the schemes under JNNURM quarterly. The Chief Minister gave these instructions at a high level meeting under his chairmanship.

The central government sponsored scheme JNNURM seeks to upgrade and improve the infra-structure of the twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar and all towns in the state, besides other urban development programmes.

Abdullah emphasised the immense importance of kick starting reforms under JNNURM in a fixed timeline so that funds come regularly and the proj-ects are completed according to the targets.

He explained JNNURM is an all-inclusive scheme for the development of cities and towns besides providing basic service to urban poor and implementing Integrated Slum Development Programme.

He asked the Housing Department and the agencies concerned with JNNURM to gear up at all levels and ensure benefits of the programme to the people in the stipulated timeframe.

capital city Development programme (ccDp)The scheme is currently being implemented in two capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu to provide basic civic amenities, broadly classified as:

a) Construction of lanes/drains/culverts.b) Construction of bathrooms/lavatory blocks. c) Development of Parks/playgrounds

graveyards. d) Development of roads.The entire allocation is distributed ward-wise

among a total of 139 wards of Jammu and Srinagar cities. An outlay of ₨9 crore was provided during 2011-12 under the scheme.

tourism Tourism is the predominant industry in Jammu as in the rest of the state. It is also the most impor-tant region for the pilgrims going to Vaishno Devi

and Kashmir valley as it is second last railway ter-minal in North India. All the routes leading to Kashmir, Poonch, Doda and Ladakh start from Jammu city.

So all through the year the city remains jam-packed with tourists from all the parts of India. Places of interest include old historic places like Mubarak Mandi, Purani Mandi, Rani Park, Amar Mahal, Bahu Fort, Raghunath Temple, Ranbiresh-war Temple, Karbala, Peer Meetha, old city and a number of shopping places, fun parks, etc.

Abdullah said that top quality service and hospitality to tourists is essential to make them visit the state time and again. He explained that while proper infrastructure is important for comfortable stay of tourists in the state, the high quality service delivery is crucial for this purpose.

URBAN NEWS DIGEST | MAy 2013 • 12

The huge shortage of skilled manpower in the country is slowing the progress of Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) projects in some states, Union Urban Devel-opment Minister Kamal Nath said.

“JNNURM is a reform

-driven, fast track pro-gramme to ensure planned development of identified cit-ies with focus on efficiency in urban infrastructure and ser-vice delivery mechanisms. But lack of professionalism has affected successful imple-mentation of the scheme in some states,” Nath said.

skill development must for JnnurM projects: Kamal nath

Planning Commission launches India Backbone Implementation NetworkThe India Backbone Imple-mentation Network (IBIN) was launched by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia recently. The pur-pose of IBIN is to improve implementation of poli-cies, programmes, and proj-ects, that the 12th Five Year Plan has located as the crit-ical necessity for accelerat-ing more inclusive and faster growth.

IBIN has been modeled on the Total Quality Move-ment (TQM) in Japan, which in the 1960s and 1970s trans-formed the capability of Japa-nese organisations. The IBIN movement will disseminate techniques and skills for col-laboration, coordination, and better planning through a network of agencies in the

country. The current partners in the expanding network are: Administrative Staff Col-lege of India, Indian School of Business, SEWA, WIS-COMP, UNDP, GIZ, World Bank, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) and other business associations.

At the launch, Arun Maira, Member, Planning Commis-sion, thanked India@75 for partnering with the com-mission to launch IBIN. India@75 is a ground-break-ing initiative, that envisions how India should be in her 75th year of independence. It seeks to bring together all stakeholders including the industry, government, insti-tutions, community groups and individuals to translate the vision into a reality.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has now finalised one of the key components of its revised procurement policy – the integrity pact. The civic body introduced the revised procurement policy a few months ago to curb malprac-tices like bid rigging, carteli-sation, etc, during tendering processes.

The integrity pact is a docu-ment that would require writ-ten commitments from both the bidders and the concerned civic officials stating their non-indulgence in any corrupt practices during the course of the tendering process and the

duration of the contract.The pact requires the bid-

der to disclose all the facts about the firm’s background including its financial stand-ing, past offences or trans-gressions with any other civic department or organisation. The bidder also has to make commitments that no bribe shall be offered or solicited and that there would be no misrep-resentation of data while filing bid documents.

If any of the commitments are found violated during the course of the contract, the civic body might take stringent measures to set a precedent.

GMR 2013: Policy makers need to harness the benefits of urbanisationThe Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2013, released last month, by the World Bank and Inter-national Monetary Fund says urbanisation helps pull peo-ple out of poverty and advances progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but if not managed well, it can also lead to burgeoning growth of slums, pollution and crime.

“The rural-urban divide is quite evident. Megacities and large cities are the richest and have far better access to basic public services; smaller towns, secondary cities, and areas on the perimeter of urban centres are less rich; and rural areas are the poorest,” said Kaushik Basu, the World Bank’s Chief Econo-mist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics. “But this does not mean unfet-tered urbanisation is a cure-all

– the urban poor in many places urgently need better services as well as infrastructure that will keep them connected to schools, jobs and decent health care,” he added.

The report also states, large cities and smaller towns are fast becoming home to the world’s largest slums, with Asia home to 61% of the world’s 828 mil-lion slum dwellers, Africa 25.5% and Latin America 13.4%.

“Urbanisation does matter. How-ever, in order to harness the eco-nomic and social benefits of urbanisation, policy-makers must plan for efficient land-use, match population densities with the required needs for transport, housing and other infrastructure, and arrange the financing needed for such urban development pro-grammes,” said Jos Verbeek, Lead Economist at the World Bank and lead author of the GMR.

UN-Habitat releases landmark report on women and youth in cities

Surat bags three JNNURM projects UN-Habitat released two

landmark reports this month on the state of women and youth in cities. The State of Women in Cities Report pres-ents the findings of a survey on perceptions of policy-mak-

ers, decision–makers, aca-demics, and city dwellers on gender and the prosperity of cities. The report is UN-Hab-itat’s contribution towards understanding the plight of

women in cities.Meanwhile, the State of the

Urban Youth Report 2012/2013 builds on the 2010/11 edition, “Levelling the Playing Field – Inequality of Youth Opportu-nity” and its insights into the

state of urban youth. Much like the findings of the last report, this one continues to demonstrate the fundamental importance of education to the development of urban youth.

The Surat Municipal Corpo-ration (SMC) got three new projects sanctioned under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) that will help provide better basic ameni-ties to the residents.

The three projects approved for the city include a 50 million litres per day (MLD) water treatment plant for the new area of Simada, expansion of a 100 MLD sew-erage treatment plant to 140 MLD capacity in Karanj and an e-governance project for the city worth ₨25 crore. “It is for the first time that an e-governance project has been sanctioned in Gujarat under JNNURM,” said Jatin Shah, City Engineer.

In projects sanctioned under JNNURM, 50% of the total cost is funded by the union government, 20% is borne by state government and the remaining 30% is borne by the local civic body.

Mumbai: civic body strengthens procurement policy

poLicy


The Reserve Bank has allowed urban co-operative banks (UCBs) to grant unsecured loans up to 25% of their assets if certain conditions are met. The UCBs need to fulfill cri-teria, such as, coverage of the entire loan portfolio of the

bank under priority sector and that all loans to be sanc-tioned as small value loans of up to ₨20,000 in a single amount.

Besides, they should have assessed CRAR (Capital to Risk Assets Ratio) of 9% and

have assessed gross non-performing assets (NPAs) at less than 10% of gross advances. Assessed CRAR and gross NPAs would be evaluated by the latest inspection carried out by the RBI.

RBI: UCBs may grant unsecured loans up to 25% of assets

india Mortgage guarantee corporation gets registeredThe Reserve Bank of India has given a certificate of registra-tion to India Mortgage Guar-antee Corporation (IMGC), the first mortgage guarantee com-pany to be registered with the regulator.

“Now that the certificate of registration has been received from RBI, this new venture will soon commence operations and start entering into MoUs with banks and housing finance companies,” said R V Verma, Chairman and Managing Direc-tor of National Housing Bank.

NHB is the majority share-holder with 38% stake in IMGC, followed by U.S.-based Genworth Financial (techni-cal partner) with 36% stake. Asian Development Bank and

International Finance Corpora-tion have 13% stake each in this commercial venture.

The primary clients of IMGC will be banks and hous-ing finance companies (HFCs), who are at present responsible for much of mortgage lending in India.

L&T Infrastructure Financeto launch ₨2,708 crore debt fundLarsen & Toubro Infrastruc-ture Finance is launching its

maiden debt fund, joining a number of private equity firms

that have set up infrastruc-ture dedicated funds in the past few months.

The ₨2,708 crore debt fund will look to invest in dis-tressed assets, particularly in the roads segment. It will also invest in renewable energy, power and urban infrastruc-ture projects.

Larsen & Toubro, an engi-neering and construction con-glomerate, is one of the anchor investors in the new credit fund, and is expected to con-tribute up to ₨1,625 crore to the proposed fund’s corpus.

The Union Finance Ministry has called for the setting up of facility management companies that can take over the operation and maintenance of completed projects. “Such firms can step in from the equity side when the projects have been devel-oped. This would help construc-tion companies that have over stretched order books to focus on other projects,” said Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, Depart-ment of Economic Affairs.

At a conference organised by the Federation of Indian Cham-bers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mayaram asked Indian companies to help set up such firms, as it would build capac-ity in the private sector for infra-structure projects.

He also advocated strong

independent regulatory author-ities that would aid capacity building in the government and

also promote public private partnership projects in sectors like coal, road and rail.

Finance Ministry moots facility management companies

world Bank mulls global infrastructure facility

tn announces extension of waiver scheme on housing cooperative loans

The World Bank is working on setting up a global infrastruc-ture facility that would chan-nel funding into much-needed projects, nurturing domestic and global economic growth, P Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister said.

The minister said that the World Bank had done a lot of work on the proposal, and

had tasked two of its manag-ing directors to come up with a paper on the subject.

The World Bank estimates $800 billion to $900 billion is invested in infrastructure proj-ects in developing countries each year, but in reality around $1 trillion more is needed to keep up with growing con-sumer and producer demand.

To boost the loan recovery rate of housing cooperative societ-ies, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has announced a six-month extension of the scheme to waive off interest, penalty interest and a num-ber of other measures. She announced that the govern-ment would set aside ₨269.21 crore for the extension of the waiver scheme.

The waivers would apply to the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Housing Federation (TNCHF) and its affiliated 619 urban and 197 rural cooperative housing societies. The societies are facing a crisis as they are the guarantors for home loans taken by members from vari-ous financial agencies such as

Life Insurance Corporation, Housing and Urban Develop-ment Corporation Limited, National Housing Bank and commercial and cooperative banks.

fiNANce

Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India

J Jayalalithaa, CM, Tamil Nadu

R V Verma, Chairman & MD, National Housing Bank


The Maharashtra government is now considering deploying atmospheric water genera-tors that convert air to potable water to meet the shortage of water in the state. These inno-vative generators are avail-able in the market and tend to absorb vapour from the atmosphere, which is then processed through a series of filters and condensers to pro-duce potable water.

However, at a cost of some ₨15 lakh, the machines con-sume a lot of electricity and only produce about 1,000 litres of water per day. There-fore, the financial viability is being worked out by the government.

The state government is also offering the reverse osmosis technology for fil-tering water, and has also

undertaken desilting of water bodies, which will increase their capacity to store water in the monsoon season.

Maharashtra gears up to tackle water crisis

Bengaluru: Strict monitoring of private tankersTo monitor private tankers the Bangalore Water Sup-ply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has directed all the private water suppliers to obtain licences from compe-tent authorities. Private tank-ers have also been asked to make sure they have the reg-istration certificate and per-mit issued by the Regional Transport Authority.

The initiative is being taken up to ensure potable

water at a reasonable price and also to check exploita-tion of groundwater sources by private players. Water suppliers will have to also maintain monthly records of the total water supplied, the price charged and also the quality of water as tested in the lab. These details will have to be regularly submit-ted to the respective executive engineers, maintenance divi-sion of the BWSSB.

Nagpur Central Railway: ‘Water conserved is water produced’The Nagpur division of Central Railway is recycling five lakh litres of waste water per day from Chamar Nala. The plant was set up in 2003, but it is being

used to its full potential after revival a couple of years ago.

“We use the recycled water for aprons and washing plat-forms and passenger train

coaches. The water used for these purposes is retained back in the nullah and recy-cled again through various pro-cesses,” said Brijesh Dixit, Divi-sional Railway Manager (DRM), Nagpur Central Railway.

The Central Railway is being charged commercial rate of ₨5 per litre by the civic body. “At this rate, we are saving at least ₨25,000 per day by recycling five lakh litre waste water daily. For us, water conserved is water produced,” said Dixit.

The Kochi Municipal Corpora-tion will soon request the Kerala government to provide financial assistance for the preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) for introducing a decentralised sanitation system in the city.

The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting held between the corporation offi-cials and the representatives of Deutsche Gesellschaft für

Internationale Zusammenar-beit (GIZ).

Regina Dube, Senior Advi-sor (Sustainable Urban Hab-itat), GIZ said, “Compared to the centralised system, includ-ing setting up Sewerage Treat-ment Plants (STPs), decentral-ised systems are more efficient and cost-effective.”

GIZ, is currently support-ing five cities in the country,

including Kochi, in the prepa-ration of City Sanitation Plans (CSPs) under the National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP).

Kerala’s Water Resources Department has launched an ambitious project to prepare digital maps (possibly in 3D format) of all 44 rivers in the state and feed them to a geo-graphic information system (GIS)-based platform.

The department aims to create a remarkable decision support system to develop an integrated, sustainable and long-term water conserva-tion and management plan

for the state.The data will cover a host

of parameters like rainfall in catchment areas of rivers, their tributaries and canals,

as well as the water flow in each of them, water utilisa-tion and conservation projects and the potential for future development.

Kochi moves towards decentralised sanitation system

Kerala plans digital river maps for water management scheme

Cities ask large-scale users to reduce potable water usageIn several northern Indian cities, local authorities have asked large-scale users to curb water consumption and find ways to increase use of recycled water. In Delhi, the state government has ordered a number of five-star hotels to bring down their potable water consump-tion and install wastewater treatment systems to recy-cle water.

While many hotels already have their own wastewa-ter treatment facilities for

non-potable purposes, those that have not yet installed the systems are being urged to do so by September.

In Chandigarh, the munic-ipal corporation asked all pri-vate and government schools to use tertiary treated water for non-potable purposes like gardening, maintaining big lawns and playgrounds. The corporation has said that schools that do not apply for tertiary treated water supply may lose their current water connections.

wATer

15 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | mAy 2013

To prevent dumping of gar-bage and other pollutants in the four majors nalas (streams) and other smaller nalas that are connected to Hussain Sagar, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) will take the help of IT firms and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

HMDA Metropolitan Com-missioner Neerabh Kumar Prasad said the IT companies or other firms can take up the awareness programme as part of their corporate social responsibility among the peo-ple of surrounding colonies of Hussain Sagar.

The NGOs or firms can

also fence the nalas to prevent waste and debris dumping. Apart from this, the HMDA is also planning to sensitise industrialists about the need

to protect nalas in the vicinity of Kukatpally and Jeedimetla as most of the untreated waste from them flows into Hussain Sagar.

HMDA rolls up its sleeves to keep Hussain Sagar clean

Maharashtra issues notices to 10 mineral water bottling plants

Maharashtra has issued notices to 10 mineral water firms and bottling plants that were sup-plying bottled water without being registered with the Food and Drug Administration. The state’s Water Supply and San-itation Minister Laxman Dho-ble said the state has 23 bottling plants, of which 13 are registered.

The notices were issued under section 36(3)(C) of the Food and Drug Administra-tion laws. An acute drought crisis in Maharashtra has led to a demand for restrictions in water usage for water intensive industries. Agriculture Minis-ter Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil had also endorsed the demand previously.

Pune’s builders keen on using treated waste waterPune’s construction sector has shown willingness to use some of the millions of litres of treated waste water that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) releases into the river every day. At present, construction sites in Pune use groundwater, which is drinking water.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has sug-gested that treated sewage water be used for construction activity. In many states like Haryana and Punjab, there is a complete ban on the use of groundwater and it is mandatory that the civic body make treated waste water avail-able to construction sites.

Rohit Gera, Vice-Presi-dent, CREDAI (Pune-Metro) and Managing Director at Gera Developments Pvt Ltd, said, “Presently, we are forced to use groundwater and often have

to buy it by the tanker for con-struction activity. We will wel-come it if PMC makes treated water available to us, as long as it is 70%-80% clean. We would

need to test the same. If it is fit to mix with concrete, we do not have any objection. It will cer-tainly save money and construc-tion cost.”

water

South City Group revives water body in KolkataThe South City Group in Kolkata has rejuvenated a 7.5 bigha Shahid Nagar water body in Jadavpur area after a massive clean-up drive. The water-body, flanked by Shahid Nagar, Bank Plot and Sweetland Development was getting swallowed up by grime and aquatic foliage.

This initiative, which is also the largest water body turnaround by any corporate in the city, is aimed at enhanc-ing bio-diversity and foster-ing ecology, besides creating a recreational zone for the resi-dents of the area.

The entire process was divided into several phases in order to orchestrate it in a timely manner. This included removal of aquatic plants from the water sur-face, uprooting the weeds, scooping out grime and haz-ardous materials, followed by chemical treatment to destroy pathogens and create a conge-nial habitat for aquatic flora and fauna. A patrolling raft was also used for surveillance during the clean-up in order to eliminate chances of rem-nants littering the water bed and banks.

Bangladesh : Rain Day Celebration

Rain Forum Society, Bangladesh in collaboration with Water-Aid in Bangladesh is going to arrange a day-long ‘Rain Day Celebration’ programme on June 15, 2013 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC), Dhaka. Through this day-long programme, the forum desires to provide a plat-form for water professionals and concerned citizens, includ-ing engineers, planners, architects, researchers, teachers, students, policy makers, journalists, environmentalists and others to discuss the scope of rainwater harvesting in the urban context of Bangladesh.

The Guwahati Metropoli-tan Development Author-ity (GMDA) has procured a ₨6 crore worth amphibian dredger from Finland to help reduce urban flooding in the city during monsoons. The GMDA has already started its cleaning drive with the dredger to clear water bod-ies and channels in the city so that the city is not inundated after excessive downpour.

The amphibian dredger has been supplied with a multi-pontoon system. All the dredger equipment, machin-eries are mounted on the

central pontoons whereas the side pontoons will pro-vide additional buoyancy for smooth and stable dredging at deeper depth. It is also capa-ble of cruising at four knots (around 7.4 km/hr) and is also capable of moving on land.

“Cleaning and develop-ment of water bodies and channels are always a prob-lem and cannot be done manually. This is where the dredger, with its unique multi-functional operat-ing features, would come in handy,” said M Angamuthu, CEO of the GMDA.

Guwahati gets Finnish technology to tackle urban floods

Green spaces improve well-being, says studyMathew White and his col-leagues at the European Cen-tre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, have found that individuals reported less mental distress and higher life satisfaction when living in greener areas.

Examining data from a national longitudinal survey

of households in the United Kingdom, White and col-leagues said that even stacked up against other factors that contribute to life satisfaction, living in a greener area had a significant effect.

“These kinds of

comparisons are important for policymakers when try-ing to decide how to invest scarce public resources, e.g. for park develop-ment or upkeep, and figur-ing out what results they’ll get for their investments,” says White.

The new research does not prove that moving to a

greener area will necessarily cause increased happiness, but it does fit with findings from experimental studies, which shows that time in a green space, however little, can improve people’s mood and cognitive functioning.

National Green Tribunal tells 14 govt bodies to ‘deconcretise trees’

wwf releases report on carbon policies of indian cities

Following a petition filed by Aditya N Prasad and others, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has served notices to 14

government bodies directing them to remove all boards, nails and advertisements from trees falling under their jurisdictions

in Delhi. The Tribunal has also directed the authorities to de-concretise the trees.

The Tribunal issued notices to four Union Ministries – Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Min-istry of Urban Development and Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation seek-ing their response in the matter.

The Delhi Government’s Department of Forests and Wildlife, Public Works Depart-ment and the Urban Develop-ment Department are among the other departments asked to ensure that the trees are pro-tected. The four civic bodies of North, South and East Delhi and the New Delhi Municipal Council have also been served notices in this regard.

Four of the 10 states studied for low carbon growth strat-egy have got the top billing in the new ranking released by

the World Wide Fund (WWF) last month. The report based on European methodology for tracking low carbon growth

says that Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu are the top per-formers in practicing low car-bon policies.

The project was initiated in the 10 states that have climate change action plans, namely — Rajasthan, Gujarat, Him-achal Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karna-taka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh.

The tracker assessed the states on the basis of the actions taken by them in the last 10 years towards low-car-bon policies. Around 60 indi-cators were identified both quantitative and qualitative.

TripAdvisor, the travel web-site, has announced the launch of its new TripAd-visor GreenLeaders pro-gramme, helping its commu-nity of more than 200 million travellers plan greener trips. The programme high-lights U.S. accommodations engaging in environmen-tally-friendly practices. The programme has been devel-oped in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency’s Energy Star programme, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the United Nations Environment Programme.

The TripAdvisor Green-Leaders programme con-siders a property’s holistic approach to green practices and ranks them based on

four levels of participation —Bronze, Silver, Gold or Plat-inum. The more green prac-tices a hotel has in place, the higher its TripAdvisor GreenLeaders level.

The travellers will also be invited to comment on a hotel’s green credentials following a stay at a participating property, and in the future their feedback will be displayed on the site.

tripadvisor highlights eco-friendly hotels to help travellers plan greener trips

BEE develops star rating programme for buildings

teri aims for new milestonesThe Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) will work towards making 15 million sq m in both government and private buildings GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment)-com-pliant in the next three years. GRIHA is the national rating system for green buildings in India.

GRIHA has been adopted by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) for com-pliance in all its future proj-ects. The Delhi government

and the Pimpri Chinch-wad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) have passed reso-lutions calling for all future buildings to be GRIHA rated. PCMC is also offering finan-cial incentives to develop-ers and occupants of such buildings.

TERI has also signed an agreement with the gov-ernment of Assam to adopt GRIHA standards in all con-struction projects, said Mili Majumdar, Director, Sustain-able Habitat, TERI.

The Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), under the Ministry of Power, has developed the star rating programme for buildings. This programme is based on the actual performance of a building in terms of its specific energy usage in kilo

watt hour per square metre a year. The rating is as per the Energy Conservation Build-ing Code (ECBC) by BEE. The rating looks into operational characteristics like build-ing use, hours of operation, climatic zone and condi-tioned space.

greeN URBAN NEWS DIGEST | MAy 2013 • 16

High-rises in Delhi may soon have to use energy-efficient reflective glass on their exterior if a proposal of the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC) to the Ministry of Urban Develop-ment becomes reality. Windows with energy efficient glass allow abundant sunlight in and keep heat out cutting down on use of lights and air-conditioning.

Raj Rewal, Chairman, DUAC said the plan for any build-ing will have to ensure use of energy-efficient glass, apart from other measures. DUAC has further recommended a fixed extra floor area for green buildings as an incentive.

Delhi high-rises up for a green makeover

Gurgaon: CEOs walk the talk on Earth DayNon-profit organisations, governments, schools and communities arranged a num-ber of programmes across the globe to mark Earth Day on April 22.

In Gurgaon, chief executive officers (CEOs) and executives of top Information Technol-ogy (IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) compa-nies participated in the Walk to Work campaign organised by the National Association of Software and Services Com-panies (NASSCOM).

“The CEOs are a perfect

choice for these campaigns as they are the leaders. It is more of a symbolic event where we are trying to spread a strong message that if CEOs can walk to work, so can other employ-ees. With such initiatives, we are looking at creating a mass awareness to make Gurgaon a pollution-free city by availing public transport as much as possible,” said Nidhi Gupta, Regional Head of NASSCOM.

In 2009, the United Nations officially designated April 22 as International Mother Earth Day.

The Goa State Pollution Con-trol Board (GSPCB) has directed South West Port Limited (SWPL), operated by Jindal Steel, to take neces-sary steps to control air pollu-tion, and alleged environmen-tal degradation in Mormugao, while handling coal at the

mechanised plant.The board also directed

SWPL to take immediate addi-tional measures such as instal-lation of additional sprinklers, windscreens, etc, in order to ensure that the param-eters meet the prescribed standards.

Campaign to make Kochi honking-free to be launchedA campaign spearheaded by Young Indians (YI), to make Kochi a honking-free city in

two years will be inaugurated by Kerala’s Transport Minister Aryadan Muhammed in May.

YI is affiliated to the Confeder-ation of Indian Industry (CII).

According to Namrata Khona, Chairperson of YI Kochi chapter, the campaign was envisaged as it was found that noise pollution from honking was high in India. “It’s common here to honk at junctions once the traffic light turns green. We have just one request to motor-ists: Please wait for at least seven seconds before you start honk-ing at signals,” Khona said.

The campaign will be extended to Thiruvanantha-puram and Coimbatore in the next phase.

electric buses at Bandra-Kurla complex soonThe Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Author-ity (MMRDA) with an aim to reduce pollution at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) is plan-ning to operate electric buses in the area.

Urvinder Pal Singh Madan, Commissioner, MMRDA said, “In order to curb pollution at the BKC, we are planning to start an electric bus service in the complex area. We are work-ing over the plan to decide the

nature of the electric bus ser-vice. However, we will meet the companies and property owners in the BKC to get their opinion about the initiative before taking any significant decision.”

south west port limited ordered to control air pollution

URBAN NEWS DIGEST | MAy 2013 17 green


Two reports by the United Nations’ International Resource Panel have urged governments to adopt the best available recy-cling technologies. Launched during a high-level dialogue on Resource Efficiency and Sus-tainable Management of Metals in Berlin, Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropo-genic Metals Flows and Cycles provides an overview of the environmental challenges of metals and the potential contri-bution of recycling to mitigate them. Metal Recycling - Oppor-tunities, Limits, Infrastruc-ture outlines improvements required to metal recycling sys-tems in the 21st century.

Manufacturers should also be concerned about recycling, the reports said, for instance avoiding mixes of metals that are hard to separate. Platinum group metals, for instance, can

effectively dissolve when mixed into steel. “Some combinations are harder and uneconomic to separate,” Markus Reuter, lead author of the report on met-als recycling. He likened some mixes to trying to separate a cup of coffee into water, milk, sugar and coffee.

Recycling rates are low in most nations and electronic waste alone is estimated at between 20 to 50 million tonnes a year per person. Most of the electronic waste generated by countries ends up getting dumped or burned, resulting in air, water and soil pollution.

Metal recycling needs bigger role in product design: UN

CMET develops cheap techto extract gold from e-wasteThe Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (CMET) in Hyderabad has come out with a new tech-nology that can generate sig-nificant wealth from e-waste.

CMET has been able to extract 150gm of gold from one tonne of discarded printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in electronic products. The process, developed by CMET, involves first pul-verising the e-waste into a paste. Then, depending on the concentration of gold in this metallic paste, scientists used appropriate processes such as solvent extraction, electroplating or cementa-tion to isolate the gold.

This technology is cheaper than those used in other countries and involves

systematic extraction of not only gold but also other met-als. “India does not have a cost-effective technology to reclaim gold and cop-per from discarded PCBs. At the lab level, our conver-sion cost totals ₨700-800 per gm of gold…By the time we commercialise the technol-ogy, the conversion cost will further come down, open-ing up new business oppor-tunities,” said T L Prakash, Director, CMET.

A research conducted by the Indian Institute of Soil Sci-ence (IISS), Bhopal, and the Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, has found a way to bring down the con-centration of heavy metals in compost made out of waste.

An analysis of compost samples collected from mixed waste, partially segre-gated waste and segregated bio-waste collected across 12 Indian cities showed that

the maximum heavy metal concentration was in mixed waste.

When the three member team washed fine fractions of the mixed waste com-post with acid, they found that the heavy metal con-tent reduced significantly. According to researchers, present technology requires excavating the contaminated soil and then treating it with acid, which helps dissolve metals. “But if the compost is treated for heavy metals before it is applied to the soil, the quality of the com-post that was earlier rejected can be brought up for agri-culture,” said IISS Professor Jayanta Saha, Lead Investi-gator of the study.

To clean railway stations in the city, the Northern Rail-way has helped NGO Chin-tan to set up a bottle-crushing machine at the New Delhi sta-tion. The four major railway stations, including New Delhi, generate 80 tonnes of solid waste, mostly used water bot-tles, per month. The Northern Railway has provided a site for waste segregation to the NGO, where 135 waste-pickers help recycle about 30% of the total waste.

“Two machines — one for cutting bottles from the cap area and another for crushing — have started operating at the New Delhi station. Every day, we are now handling nearly 6,000 bottles taken off 20 trains coming to the station,”

said Nidhi Mishra of Chintan. “Of the total waste gener-

ated, 40% is wet waste. The South Delhi Municipal Corpo-ration takes this bit to its land-fill at Okhla. The rest is dry and comprises paper, alumin-ium and plastic. This is sent for recycling,” said Mishra.

Haryana takes stern steps to control polythene usageTo bring more people who use polythene bags under the ambit of challan, the Haryana government has brought in an

amendment to the existing gar-bage control legislation.

P Raghvendra Rao, Finance Commissioner and Principal

Secretary, Urban Local Bod-ies Department, said the Vid-han Sabha passed the Haryana Non-biodegradable Garbage Control Amendment Act last month, which has provisions to challan plastic bag users.

A few weeks ago, the Munic-ipal Corporation Gurgaon (MCG) launched a drive against manufacturers of plastic bags. “The ongoing drive, that we launched recently is primar-ily targeted against the manu-facturers of plastic bags and we have been able to collect a lot of challan payments. However, we had not been able to prosecute and challan individual users as the Act did not provide much clarity. With the state govern-ment bringing an amendment in the existing law, we hope we will be able to target such users as well…Our aim is to make Gur-gaon polythene-free,” said a cor-poration official.

Innovative campaign for a cleaner GuwahatiThe District Disaster Manage-ment Authority (DDMA) of Kamrup (Metro) district, with the help of civil society groups, has started a unique campaign ‘Metropolis - I Am Responsi-ble’ in Guwahati. The objec-tive of the campaign is to create awareness among city resi-dents about the importance of maintaining hygiene in the respective localities by ask-ing people not to throw waste on roads and drains. Lead-ing actors and singers of the state have joined hands with the DDMA to instill a sense of responsibility among people. The move could solve several civic problems, especially arti-ficial floods.

“We will have to bring back the sense of pride among city

residents by changing our hab-its of throwing waste materi-als here and there and by pro-tecting nature,” said Ashutosh Agnihotri, Deputy Commis-sioner, Kamrup (Metro).

To spread the message of

‘Cleaner Guwahati, Better Guwahati’ – street plays, her-itage bus drives, bullet drives, workshops, exhibitions and demonstrations would be held in the city till June under the programme.

Acid treatment lowers metal content in compost, says research

Northern Railway collaborates with NGO to clean Delhi stations

wAsTe


The City and Industrial Devel-opment Corporation (CIDCO), the civic authority for a major part of Navi Mumbai, has appealed to medical practitio-ners to dispose bio-medical waste according to the norms meant for waste handling and disposal.

The Public Health Depart-ment of CIDCO noted that medi-cal practitioners were disposing bio-medical waste in the regular municipal solid waste bins. The department has warned of strict actions against anybody who violates the Bio-Medical Waste Handling & Disposal Rule, 1998.

CIDCO urges proper disposal of bio-medical waste

World Bank arm ties up with Attero for e-waste recyclingThe India-based Attero Recycling and Interna-tional Finance Corporation (IFC) have joined hands to start a ‘Clean e-India’ initiative across Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

About 1.5 million people would be impacted by this project, which aims to bring together all stakeholders

— producers of electronic equipment, bulk consumers, government agencies, NGOs and civil society.

IFC has invested $5 mil-lion to help Attero develop a range of recycling assets. Further, 15 electronic goods manufacturers, including Samsung, HCL, Videocon, Haier and Philips, have also signed up to this initiative.

New e-waste collection centre to start operations in KeralaThe Kerala Enviro Infra-structure Limited — which runs the Common Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage and

Disposal Facility (CHWTSDF) at Ambalamedu — is ready with an e-waste collection centre. The company is now awaiting the

Kerala State Pollution Control Board’s final approval to begin operations.

The company has converted a portion of its 2,000 sq m stor-age facility for the collection cen-tre with the capacity to handle four tonnes of e-waste a day.

The idea is to collect e-waste from points of generation such as Infopark, Technopark, and bulk users of electronic and electrical equipment, such as banks and educational insti-tutions and then transport the waste to a recycling facility. An understanding has been reached with Gurgaon-based Green Vortex Private Limited and e-waste recycling plants at Bhubaneshwar and Hyderabad for the purpose.

Chennai to get power from animal wasteBhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has proposed a project that promises to convert part of animal waste generated from Chennai’s slaughterhouses into power using biomethanation.

BARC has identified Vil-livakkam slaughterhouse as one of the two places to set up three biomethanation plants in the city. The other two plants will come up in Pulianthope, where other

biodegradable waste, includ-ing vegetable peels and food materials would be used.

BARC scientists said a one-tonne biomethanation plant that costs around ₨15 lakh can generate 60 cubic metres of gas and 50kg of manure. Moreover, gaseous fuel can be converted into electricity with the help of a generator and used to light 250 streetlights for about 10 hours.

waste to wealth: Bengaluru residents show the wayDifferent take

Residents of a housing enclave near Yelahanka in Bengaluru have shown that concerted efforts can go a long way in waste management.

Residents of some 100 apartments and 26 villas from Sobha Althea and Azalea not only segre-gate their garbage into wet and dry waste but further divide the dry waste into 14 categories. Not a bit of the 950 kg of waste generated every month goes to the landfill; it is either reus-able or compostable.

“We live and breathe waste management,” said Savita Hiremath, a resi-dent who pioneered the initiative. “It is not just a passion to clean up but a deep understanding of things related to our way

of living. The landfill cri-sis gave us a strong reason to start waste management in a big way.”

The green commit-tee that manages this waste management plays an active role in train-ing domestic helps,

maintaning the compound and monitoring waste seg-regation every day.

Recyclers take away all the segregated waste and pay the residents nearly ₨4,000 a month, which in turn is paid as incentives to the domestic helps.

waste


The ‘Draft Guidelines’ released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy have fixed a tariff of ₨5.45 per kWh for solar power projects that will be awarded under Phase II of the National Solar Mission.

Those interested in solar power projects will now be asked to bid for ‘viability gap funding’ that will be given by the union government. The union government intends to provide viability gap funding for 750 MW of capacity. Those who bid for the least VGF will

be selected for signing the power purchase agreement

with government-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India.

Solar Mission Phase II tariff fixed at ₨5.45 per unit

Germany to support India in renewable energy sectorGermany will support the building of India’s renewable energy capacity by provid-ing soft loans of up to one bil-lion euros for a six-year period starting 2013.

Germany’s offer is part of its development coopera-tion with India, a result of a “joint declaration of intent” signed by Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister for Renewable Energy and Gudrun Kopp, Parliamentary State Secre-tary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation

and Development during the second inter-governmental consultations that concluded in Berlin last month.

The building up of renew-able energy is crucial to bring power generation in India in harmony with environ-ment protection, Kopp said. The agreement was signed in the presence of Prime Minis-ter Dr Manmohan Singh and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who jointly chaired the inter-governmental consultations.

Indian PM pitches for subsidy to boost clean energyPrime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh pitched for subsidis-ing clean energy to overcome financing problems while inaugurating the fourth Clean Energy Ministerial round in New Delhi.

Dr Singh said the pace of reliance on new energy sources was constrained by the fact that they were more expensive than conventional energy. Though

the cost of solar energy has nearly halved over the last two years, it was still higher than the cost of fossil fuels-based electricity.

Energy ministers from 20 leading economies attended the Clean Energy Ministe-rial round to chart a course for promoting clean energy. The India round was co-chaired by Planning Commission Deputy

Chairman Montek Singh Ahlu-walia and U.S. Energy Secre-tary Steven Chu.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to invest $30 million in Hyderabad-based NSL Renewable Power Private Ltd. The investment is also ADB’s first private sector assistance to India’s hydropower sec-tor. The bank, with partici-pation from nearly 67 coun-tries, invested $2.3 billion in renewable projects in Asia in 2012-13.

In 2013-14, it targets to invest another $2 billion, said Lakshmi Venkatachalam, Vice-President (Private Sector and Co-financing Operations) at ADB.

NSL Renewable will use the investment proceeds to par-tially finance the construc-tion of its 100 MW Tidong

run-of-rover hydropower proj-ect in Himachal Pradesh and the 75 MW Chilarwadi wind power project in Maharashtra.

As the global energy demand of appliances, buildings and industry continues to skyrocket, three non-profit organisa-tions are tackling the challenge through EnergyEfficiency 2030, a new partnership launched last month.

EnergyEfficiency 2030 is a joint initiative of the Collab-orative Labeling & Appliance Standards Program (CLASP), the Global Buildings Perfor-mance Network (GBPN) and the Institute for Industrial

Productivity (IIP). “EnergyEfficiency 2030 will

leverage our collective technical expertise and global networks, providing decision-makers with holistic, cost-effective energy efficiency solutions,” said Peter Graham, Executive Director of GBPN. “Through the application of global best practices, this initiative will improve greenhouse gas miti-gation, enhance policy perfor-mance and increase the pro-ductivity and competitiveness

of markets and industries.”Each of the organisations

that comprise EnergyEffi-ciency 2030 houses relevant resources, best practice infor-mation and tools, including guidelines, reports, factsheets and case studies.

CLASP, GBPN and IIP are independent non-profit organ-isations operating globally, regionally and nationally, with teams in China, India, Europe and the U.S.

ADB makes first investment in Indian renewable energy firm

EnergyEfficiency 2030: New partnership to accelerate global energy efficiency efforts

Seven states out of 29 achieve RPO targets, says Greenpeace

The concept of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) has been introduced to build momentum in the renewable energy sector. RPO targets a 7% generation of India’s total electricity using renewable energy sources in 2012 and 15% by 2020. To achieve this, each state was told to set an RPO target.

Only seven states out of 29 achieved their targets. Accord-ing to a Greenpeace report ‘Powering Ahead with Renew-ables: Leaders and Laggards,’ the under-performing states cumulatively brought down the national RPO target from 7% to 5.44%.

Among the worst-perform-ing states on the RPO index are high-energy consumption

states like Delhi, Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. However, states such as, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Meghalaya, with similar potential and resources have done better.

According to Abhishek Pratap, Senior Campaigner, Energy, Greenpeace India, the existing RPO mechanism is toothless as it gives lethar-gic states the discretion to set unambitious targets. He said, “The existing policy needs to be replaced with a mandatory mechanism that is based on equity, and takes into account the power purchasing capac-ity of states and its consumer profile. The right place to start would be the national capital.”

eNergy


Along with global majors Cisco, Google, Ericsson and Fujitsu, Indian IT brands Wipro and HCL have emerged as leaders among technol-ogy sector companies provid-ing energy solutions to help address climate change. In the global IT-sector climate lead-ership assessment by Green-peace International, Wipro secured 5th position, and HCL was ranked 13th in the 6th Cool IT Leaderboard .

While Wipro strongly advo-cated for a higher renewable purchase obligation (RPO) target in the range of 15%-20% and for a more aggres-sive National Solar Mission

target, HCL called for higher share of renewable energy by

strengthening the current reg-ulatory mechanism.

Indian IT firms champion renewable energy

Oil India commissions 54-MW wind turbine plant in RajasthanOil India Ltd (OIL) has commissioned a 54MW wind turbine power plant in Rajasthan. The project, which comprises 27 wind turbine generator (WTG) units of 2,000 kilo-watt each, is located at Dangri in Jais-almer district, the company said in a statement. The proj-ect was completed at a cost of ₨360 crore and within 142 days from the date of issuing the letter of award (LOA) to the bidder.

OIL last year entered the renewable energy sector

with the commissioning of a 13.6 MW wind energy proj-ect in Rajasthan. OIL said diversification into alternate energy sources was a strate-gic decision.

Biomass power industry seeks generation-based incentiveThe Indian Biomass Power Association, a newly formed body to represent biomass power plant owners, has

written to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to con-sider extending the genera-tion-based incentive given to

the wind energy sector.Biomass-based power proj-

ects primarily use agriculture waste as fuel to generate elec-tricity. There are more than 1,250 MW of biomass-based power plants in the country, but more than half these units are not able to operate because of high fuel costs and low power tariff.

This sector is not supported by other policy measures like renewable purchase obliga-tion — ensuring that electric-ity utilities buy a portion of their power requirement from this source — along the lines available to wind and solar power.

Wind venture capital (VC) funding rebounded in the first quarter of 2013, raising $16 mil-lion in three deals after the previous quarter saw just one $500,000 VC deal.

According to a report from Mercom Capital Group, a global clean energy communications and consulting firm, most of the funding activity this quar-ter went towards project fund-ing. Announced project fund-ing in Q1 2013 came to $6.2 billion in 29 deals with some extremely large transactions recorded this quarter. There were four mergers and acquisi-tions (M&A) transactions in Q1 2013, amounting to $543 million.

According to Mercom, fund-ing and M&A activity in India’s wind energy sector in the first quarter was active with trans-actions in project, debt and

other funding. Notable transac-tions include Continuum Wind Energy, which received a $164 million loan from State Bank of India for its 175MW wind project in Maharashtra; Guja-rat Venture Finance, which picked up an equity stake in a

special purpose vehicle of UK-based SITAC group, formed to execute a 50MW wind project of approximately $47 million in Gujarat; and Suzlon, which raised $647 million in a bond issue by State Bank of India and JPMorgan Chase.

Global wind venture capital funding rebounds in 2013

Tehri hydro power plant to use GE technology

Graphene paint could power homes of the future

GE’s Power Conversion busi-ness will help India face an ever increasing electricity demand through the use of its highly efficient variable-speed drive technology. This technology offers greater out-put control, for THDC (Tehri Hydro Development Corpo-ration) India Ltd’s, 1,000MW pumped-storage hydro power plant on the Bhagi-rathi River in Uttarakhand.

This is the first pumped -storage power plant in

India to use variable speed pump turbine sets. This will provide higher power output and provide much needed grid stability for India’s increasing electric-ity demands than previous systems.

GE’s Power Conversion drive systems will be used for all of the plant’s vari-able-speed motor/generator sets of the pump turbines to enable continuous control of the plant’s pump output.

Scientists at the University of Manchester in U.K. have pro-duced solar powered surfaces by using wafers of graphene with thin layers of other materials.

The resulting surfaces, which were paper thin and flexible, were able to absorb sunlight to produce electric-ity at a level equivalent to existing solar panels.

These could be used to cre-ate a kind of ‘coat’ on the out-side of buildings to generate power needed to run appli-ances inside while also carry-ing other functions too, such as being able to change colour.

The researchers are now hoping to develop the tech-nology further by producing a paint that can be put onto

the outside of buildings.Graphene was first dis-

covered in 2004 by Andrew Geim and Konstantin Ser-geevich Novoselov. They won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating its remarkable properties – that it was harder than dia-mond, transparent and could conduct electricity inspite of being one atom thick.

energy


Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan flagged off the official Mumbai metro trial run at the Versova Metro Sta-tion on May 1, which is also Maharashtra Day. The metro rail completed a 3-km trial from Versova to Azad Nagar during its first official trial run.

“Flagging off the offi-cial metro trial run on the Maharashtra Day is an appro-priate tribute to all the workers, technicians, officials and engi-neers, who are striving hard to complete this metro corridor,” said Chavan.

The Chief Minister said tri-als will continue for the next few months so as to secure a safety certification from the Commis-sioner of Railway Safety. He also

said the first phase from Versova to Airport Road is expected to start around September and the second phase from Airport Road to Ghatkopar by the year end.

The Mumbai Metropolitan

Region Development Author-ity (MMRDA) has undertaken the task of constructing the metro rail system in Mumbai using the Public Private Partnership model.

The contract for constructing the first metro corridor connect-ing Versova–Andheri–Ghat-kopar (VAG) was awarded to the consortium of Reliance Energy Limited, Veolia Transport

(France) and MMRDA. Mumbai Metro One Private Limited, is the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) created by the partners to undertake the project.

Maharashtra cM flags off Mumbai Metro trial run

Delhi Metro trains staff in sign languageThe Delhi Metro Rail Corpora-tion (DMRC) is aiming to make travelling easier for differently abled commuters with special orientation training in sign lan-guage for its customer relation assistants (CRAs).

After requests from differ-ently abled through its helpline, the DMRC signed an agree-ment with Indian Sign Lan-guage Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), an auton-omous body sponsored by ministry of social justice and empowerment.

Commuters can seek assis-tance from the station staff by informing in advance about

the station they want to reach, so that they can be provided

necessary assistance in time, a DMRC official said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has high-lighted the need to establish a regulatory authority to look after the transport infrastruc-ture projects being taken up in Maharashtra. “There should be a regulatory authority or body in the state, that should look after the fares of the transport infrastructure proj-ects, so the project delays, cost

escalation and related issues are addressed,” said Chavan.

At the moment, the idea to establish such a statutory authority is in a nascent stage with the chief minister hav-ing taken the subject with the Union government. In Mumbai, there are two trans-port infrastructure projects that are in progress — metro rail and monorail.

In a bid to end frequent traffic snarls on the NH-24, the Delhi Traffic Police has submitted a detailed decongestion plan to the Unified Traffic and Trans-portation Infrastructure (Plan-ning & Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC). The plan, which requires rectifying some engi-neering defects on the road by the PWD, is under consider-ation, said a UTTIPEC official.

The main causes identified for the traffic snarls include the presence of two successive traf-fic signals on the arterial stretch, barely 50 metres apart; the nar-row width of the road and wrong geometrical construc-tion of the loop from NH-24 to climb the Noida flyover towards UP Link road.

watchdog needed to look into public transport fares, says Maharashtra cM

Delhi Traffic Police submit detailed decongestion plan

Hyderabad Metro to have Otis lifts and escalators

MoUD drafts policy on public bicycle scheme

Otis Elevator Company will be supplying the lifts and escala-tors for the elevated metro rail project in Hyderabad, said Larsen & Toubro Metro Rail (Hyderabad).

The contract, which is worth more than ₨400 crore, is for 410 escalators and 260 lifts to be installed all across the 72 km routes in the three corridors in stations and also depots-cum-offices. The heavy duty elevators and esca-lators for the project will be manufactured in the Otis fac-tories at Guangzhou, China.

Larsen & Toubro Metro Rail (Hyderabad) is the con-cessionaire building the metro rail for the city across

three traffic corridors. Larsen and Toubro Limited was awarded the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project by the Gov-ernment of Andhra Pradesh. L&T incorporated the Spe-cial Purpose Vehicle – L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Lim-ited to implement the proj-ect on Design, Built, Finance Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.

Political will and policy sup-port will make the public bicycle scheme in cities work, stated a draft policy issued by the Ministry of Urban D e v e l o p m e n t ( M o U D ) recently has stated. The public bicycle scheme could meet the needs of sustainable transport system, the policy stated.

The ministry said the project aimed at provid-ing options for mobility to all categories of people and encouraged them towards e n v i r o n m e n t - f r i e n d l y, health-conscious and an effi-cient mode of transport for short trips.

The model concession agreement has been devel-oped after the best inter-national practices. The Institute for Transporta-tion and Development Pol-icy (ITDP), as well as other

organisations, have prepared the draft policy.

The policy deals with cycle sharing, planning pro-cesses, project prerequi-sites, institutional roles and responsibilities, the cover-age area, number of cycle stations and outreach and marketing.

TrANsporT


The large low-floor buses ply-ing the roads in Delhi have come under flak from E Sreed-haran, the former Delhi Metro chief and Chairman of the working committee on urban transport (set up by the Plan-ning Commission for the 12th Five Year Plan).

“The buses on the roads today are not the ones the city requires. These block traffic in the rear and are low-floor only at the entrance. Then you have to climb stairs to take the seats… The government should also introduce smaller, narrower buses with high frequency, that can manoeuvre through traffic in the city,” said Sreedharan.

He also said that even top quality manufacturers in

the country don’t have the design for narrow, low-floor buses. “Buses should be like the Metro coaches, which

were specifically designed for the country. Buses are not more complicated than Metro coaches,” he added.

‘Run smaller buses’ says former Delhi Metro chief

Kerala: New bus terminal at EenchakkalThe Kerala State Road Trans-port Corporation (KSRTC) is to construct a modern bus terminal at Eenchak-kal. The bus terminal is to come up on five acres of land owned by the KSRTC adja-cent to the Enchakkal junc-tion that is now being used as an operating centre and park-ing lot for Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) buses

operated by the state trans-port undertaking.

The bus terminal, which is modelled on the lines of mod-ern terminals in Chennai and Bangalore, will be a four-sto-rey commercial complex with underground parking facil-ities. The KSRTC plans to shift super class and long-dis-tance services from the Central Bus Station at Thampanoor to Eenchakkal.

Tamil Nadu to lay 1,100 km plastic roadsTamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said that the state government has planned to relay 1,100 km roads in rural and urban areas by mixing plastic waste with bitumen. Plastic waste will also be used to repair roads, she said. Finan-cial assistance will come from the environment protection and renewable energy devel-opment fund. By using it for road laying, the government will not only be able to consume plastic waste, but also enhance the quality of roads, Jayalalithaa said.

In the last two years, the state Rural Development Department has proposed 1,255 km long roads using

plastic waste at a cost of ₨153.5 crore. While 1,002 km of road has been completed, the rest is expected to be completed soon.

In the urban areas too, 1,065 km-long plastic roads were planned and works are under various stages of completion.

The Vadodara-Mumbai sec-tion of National Highway 8 has become the first highway in India to make use of Radio Fre-quency Identification Device (RFID) technology at seven toll posts. By the end of this month, all the five entry points to Mumbai too will be equipped with the same technology.

Motorists have to paste RFID tags, available at the kiosks of the plazas, on the upper central portion of vehi-cle’s windscreen to use the technology. When a ‘tagged’ car passes through a dedicated lane at the toll plaza, RFID readers at the posts will scan the unique tag number and the toll amount

will be deducted from the pre-paid account of the motorist. The motorist will then get an instant SMS and email giving details of the transaction.

RFID technology will improve vehicle clearance at toll plazas that often face major traffic snarls, since vehicles use cash lanes, wasting time.

RFID technology introduced on NH 8

Bhubaneswar to get more bus sheds

ADB to finance construction of India-Myanmar road

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is to con-struct 159 bus sheds in pub-lic-private-partnership (PPP) mode and has floated tenders for the project to invite private

parties. At present, there are 38 bus sheds in the city. After the state government decided to increase the fleet size of buses, more bus stops were required.

“The private party will also

be given advertisement rights for five years. However, it has to pay the licence fee for put-ting up advertisements on the shed,” said Srimanta Mishra, BMC Licensing Officer. He

said the bus sheds will have toilets and drinking water facilities.

While BMC will construct 151 sheds, the remaining eight will be taken up by the works department, he added.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to finance the con-struction of the 417km long Indo-Myanmar Road connect-ing Moore in Myanmar with Sutarkandi in Assam.

The first phase of the road, to be laid under ADB’s ‘Pro-posed Road Consulting Mis-sion’, would be from Moore to Imphal in Manipur while the second phase would be from Imphal to Sutarkandi via Sil-char in Assam.

A high-level delegation of ADB’s loan consultation mis-sion and a team from the Union

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways recently vis-ited the proposed area and will soon submit a field study report to the Centre. It is expected that the construc-tion of the proposed road will lead to increased commercial ties between the two countries.

transport


Real estate developer Wave Infratech is to invest ₨3,000 crore for its integrated mod-ern township in Mohali. “The township spread over 300 acres of land is coming up fast in Sec-tors 85 and 99 in Mohali, Pun-jab,” said Deepak Sachdev, Executive Director and CEO, Wave Estates .

“There are features like full electronic surveillance for enhanced security, full power backup, exclusive parking spaces for the visitors, charging points for electric cars keeping in view the future in mind,” he said, adding that the township falls close to main commercial

areas in Mohali, including the PCA cricket stadium. “All the built-up structures in Wave Estates will be earthquake

resistant and will comply with Seismic Zone IV design require-ments applicable for the area,” he added.

Wave Infratech to invest ₨3,000 crore for township in Mohali

Bengaluru’s biggest township taking shapeBengaluru’s biggest pri-vate township, the $1 billion Bharatiya City spread across 125 acres, is to be built on the north-eastern part of the city. Bhartiya City is an integrated township and will house apartment blocks, an SEZ, multiplexes, malls, office buildings, five star hotels, schools and hospitals. The entire project is expected to be completed within a decade.

At present, only the hous-ing project is being marketed. During the first phase, a total of ₨2,000 will be invested but the entire project will cost about $1 billion. The sale value will be around $4 billion once the entire project is completed.

A consortium of banks is funding the project, though the acquisition of the land has been funded entirely by the company.

Studio apartments draw big response in small citiesWith changes in the social fabric of smaller cities, stu-dio apartments are becom-ing a convenient option for

many in places like Luc-know, Coimbatore, Chandi-garh, Surat, Nagpur, Mohali and Japiur. Apart from young

professionals, expats and senior citizens, who may not want the burden of maintain-ing a large house, are attracted by studio apartments. Luc-know’s Gomti Nagar area recently saw the launch of 600 studio units called ‘My Pad’ by DLF.

“The growing prosperity of people in tier-II cities has led to demands for premium resi-dential projects in these towns. People look for a better stan-dard of living and there are specific demands of working professionals that we intend to provide,” says Mohit Gujral, Managing Director, DLF.

Tamil Nadu’s Industries Minister P Thangamani said six new industrial parks spread over 8,000 acres will be established across the state. These parks would come up in Sriperumbu-dur, Cheyyar, Tuticorin, Madurai, Oragadam and

Tindivanam.The Cheyyar Industrial

Complex would require an expansion on 2,300 acres of land while in the case of

Tuticorin it would be 1,179 acres under Phase II for the Thoothukudi Industrial Complex.

In case of the Madurai industrial park, the gov-ernment is in the process of acquiring 1,478 acres and 720 acres of land in the Tindiva-

nam industrial park. Under Phase II of the project land extending 616 acres will be added to the Oragadum Industrial Growth Centre.

Chennai Metropolitan Develop-ment Authority gave its assent to the proposal by Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associ-ations of India (CREDAI) to use buildings built originally for the Information Technology sector for other purposes. The build-ings are likely to be converted into malls, banks or offices, builders said.

Such buildings were con-structed due to incentives given by the state government to build-ers to promote the IT sector. Now many of these buildings are lying vacant due to lack of tenants.

Former National President of Builders Association of India, R Radhakrishnan said, “This move will be beneficial for pro-moters to convert the IT build-ings to non-IT purpose.”

Tamil Nadu to get six new industrial parks

Chennai: Vacant IT buildings may soon turn into malls

Kolkata warms up to studio and serviced apartments Studio and ownership ser-vice apartments are gaining currency in the real estate market of Kolkata. These apartments consist of small furnished flats, that com-bine living room, bedroom, and kitchen into a single room and are available for short-term or long-term stays. They are equipped with amenities for daily use.

Two big real estate play-ers in Kolkata — Siddha and Merlin — have already come up with two studio apart-ment projects in the city.

Real estate operators feel there are three main

reasons behind the growth in demand for studio and service apartments in Kolkata — the rising num-ber of young IT and ser-vice industry profession-als with large pay packages, work pressure and hectic lifestyle.

The Joint Managing Director of Siddha Group, Sanjay Jain said, “Besides young couples, these flats are attracting retired elderly people as well. There is also another kind of buyer, the one who likes to stay alone at the weekend, far from the bustling city.”

reAL esTATe


Indicating an improvement in consumer sentiment, the MagicBricks National Prop-erty Index (NPI) rose 3% in this quarter compared with the previous quarter. Among the 11 cities tracked in the apartment index, eight have seen a rise but others regis-tered a marginal drop in the city index.

While Bangalore, Gurg-aon, Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Pune and Ghaziabad witnessed a rise in city index values, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad recorded a 2%-6% drop during the quar-ter. NPI is a weighted average of supply and prices across 11 Indian cities. Bangalore was at

the top of the city index chart registering a 7% increase fol-lowed by Gurgaon and Noida at 5% rise each. Mumbai and

Kolkata registered a rise of 4% each while Delhi, Pune and Ghaziabad saw a rise of 3% each in the city index values.

Global real estate advisor DTZ has predicted that the demand for office space may increase to 30.5 million sq ft this year. “Fears of downside risks for the global economy have started to fade, which combined with local economic policy amend-ments, including the open-ing of 51% FDI in multi- brand retail, climb-down of repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and stronger eco-nomic outlook, have resulted in improved market sentiment,”

said Anshul Jain, CEO, DTZ India.

According to DTZ, the demand for office space from the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector will also rise significantly pri-marily after the passage of the Banking (Amendment) Bill.

“This bill is aimed at attract-ing foreign investment and paves way for the RBI to issue new banking licenses to the private sector. This move will further increase demand for

commercial office space from the BFSI sector and there-fore increase its proportionate share of demand in the coming years,” Jain added.

MagicBricks property index up 3%

Demand for office space to reach 30.5 million sq ft in 2013: DTZ

Home prices skyrocket in Delhi’s Lutyens Bungalow Zone

The price of property in Del-hi’s exclusive Lutyens Bun-galow Zone has seen an eight-fold increase in the past decade.

While the value of the pri-vate portion of the Lutyens Bungalow Zone has gone up from around ₨6,100 crore to ₨49,000 crore in the past 10 years, the value of the 995 acres occupied by government bungalows has grown from ₨24,000 crore to ₨1,92,000 crore, albeit notionally, based

on current market rates derived from recent transac-tions in the area.

“The economy has grown so rapidly over the last few years that this has given an opportunity for new entre-preneurs to find homes in this exclusive zone. Higher demand in a low supply sce-nario is leading to high prop-erty prices here,” says San-thosh Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, Operations, Jones Lang LaSalle India.

According to the Jones Lang LaSalle India survey report, ‘Real estate cost optimisa-tion: The road less travelled’, the increased focus on cost reduction and operational effi-ciency, 45% of the organisa-tions have reduced office space per employee. In the services industry, real estate cost is the second largest cost component after human resources.

India has been seeing a steady increase of real estate costs over the last few years. The report predicts that by end-2014, Indian office rents will grow by 24% over the trough levels of end-2009.

Jones Lang LaSalle cau-tions that anticipated growth in office rents across all mar-kets in this uncertain phase has compelled organisations to lease out spaces at a relatively

attractive price compared to existing rates. One of the real estate strategies that organisa-tions should consider is early renewal and extension of lease agreements.

Poddar Developers has launched the first phase of its ₨825 crore integrated town-ship project, ‘Poddar Navje-evan’, in Shahapur, Thane. Phase I of the project, spread across over 15 lakh sq ft aims to provide affordable housing and create nearly 4,500 homes.

The cost of the first phase, which involves construction of 1RK and 1BHK apartments is around ₨300 crore. The cost of phase II is estimated at ₨525 crore and spread across 25 lakh sq ft. The entire township proj-ect is expected to be completed in the next eight to 10 years.

Real estate second largest cost component after HR, says survey report

Poddar Developers launches ₨825 crore township project in Shahapur

Delhi: MoUD brings relief to Sainik Farms and other colonies

The Ministry of Urban Devel-opment (MoUD) has brought big relief to property owners in colonies, such as, Sainik Farms, Mahendru Enclave and Anantram Dairy by regu-larising farmhouses and giv-ing exclusive ownership of builder flats to over 22 lakh apartment owners.

Firstly, the ministry is to take the issue of regularisa-tion of the illegal farmhouses to the Union Cabinet for “in-principle approval”. In the sec-ond case, Kamal Nath, Minis-ter of Urban Development, has cleared the proposal for

bringing a new law — Delhi Apartment Ownership Bill — which aims to give exclusive rights to people on their indi-vidual flats.

Once enforced, the new law will help those who have bought builder flats on plots. At present, the ownership of the land is mutual and it is almost impossible for an indi-vidual flat owner to change the title of the flat from leasehold to freehold. These two propos-als are a part of the ministry’s commitment to form policies concerning land-related issues by December 2014.

real estate


Tata Housing Development Company is making an entry into housing for senior citi-zens with the launch of a ₨70 crore project in Bengaluru. The 4.5 acre project ‘Riva Res-idences’ will have 187 units for people with an age of 55 and above.

“Tata Housing’s mission is driven by the desire to delight our customers by providing quality life spaces through continuous innovation. In the same spirit, Riva is our effort to create a special offering for the seniors of our society,” said Brotin Banerjee, MD and CEO, Tata Housing.

The project has been planned with modern utility-based design facilities, ser-vices and ambiance to spe-cially cater to the requirement of its senior residents. Asked

about the selling price, the offi-cial said it would be ₨45 lakh all inclusive for a one-bed-room flat with 800 sq ft area and ₨65 lakh for two-bedroom flat with an area of 1,200 sq ft.

tata housing announces first project for senior citizens in Bengaluru

Maharashtra plans one lakh affordable homes by 2018

The Maharashtra government plans to construct at least one lakh affordable homes by 2018. The government has decided to scrap the ‘rental housing’ scheme and replace it with the ‘affordable hous-ing’ scheme.

The government had ear-lier planned to construct nearly five lakh homes in Mumbai and its surround-ing areas for renting them to those who could not afford to buy one. However, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that the size of the rental houses – 160 sq ft – is not in

keeping with new rehabilita-tion policy norms.

The government is now focusing on ‘brown redevel-opment’, which means rede-velopment in an area where structures exist, but can be broken down to make way for taller highrises. On the other hand, constructing on a patch of green, where no structure exists, is called ‘green redevel-opment’. The state will offer incentives to redevelopers by offering extra FSI (floor space index) and to developers who keep at least 20% of the houses for the needy.

Supertech to develop Disney-themed housing project in Greater NoidaSupertech Ltd is joining hands with Disney India to develop a Disney-themed housing

project in Greater Noida at an investment of about ₨500 crore. The tie-up with Disney India is

for developing 800-1,000 flats, with Disney inspired exterior and interiors, in the 7.5 acre housing project ‘Fable Castle’, which is part of the 100-acre township located on Yamuna Expressway.

Roshini Bakshi, Manag-ing Director (Consumer Prod-ucts, Retail and Publishing), Disney UTV said, “This is our third such project in India. We have already tied up in Mumbai and Kolkata. Consum-ers in Mumbai have reacted positively for Disney-themed homes and feedback is very good in Kolkata as well.”

Mantri Realty plans to launch six housing projects within the next few months to develop around 2,300 flats across the country. The projects will require an investment of about ₨1,500 crore in the next three years and the price of the res-idential units will go up to ₨5 crore.

“The realty market has almost stabilised and buy-ers are coming back as they

have realised that prices are unlikely to fall further. Demand is good if we offer attractive schemes,” said Sunil Mantri, Mantri Realty Chairman.

Out of the total invest-ment, ₨300-500 crore will be raised as debt from banks, while the rest will come from internal accruals and customers’ booking, Mantri added.

Among the slew of hous-ing projects announced by Chief Minister J Jaya-lalithaa, 1,500 flats will be built using pre-fabricated technology at a cost of ₨612 crore. These flats will be on land belonging to the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) in Sholinganallur, a suburb of Chennai.

By using pre-fabrication technology the government would save 25% construc-tion time and 10% to 15% on construction cost.

Mantri Realty to launch six housing projects

Tamil Nadu: 1,500 houses to be built using pre-fabricated building technology

Mahindra lifespace makes strong entry into affordable housing marketMahindra Lifespace Develop-ers Ltd will launch an afford-able housing business with pilot projects in Boisar, Mum-bai’s suburb and another in Avadi, north Chennai.

According to Anita Arjun-das, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mahindra Lifespace Devel-opers Ltd, though affordably priced housing is a low-mar-gin business, it promises high sales volumes for real estate companies.

The company has set up a separate team for its affordable

housing business and will sell these affordable homes at ₨5-15 lakh across cities, but the sizes may differ depending on the market.

In recent times, a num-ber of corporate groups have diversified into real estate and have announced plans to ser-vice the affordable housing segment. In 2009, Tata Hous-ing Development Pvt Ltd first announced its project at Boisar. Since then, other firms such as Usha Breco Realty Ltd have launched similar projects there.

HoUsiNg


The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has selected 10 partner cities for its City Resilience Pro-filing Programme (CRPP).

The tools and guidelines developed under the CRPP will be tested and refined in Balangoda (Sri Lanka), Barce-lona (Spain), Beirut (Lebanon), Dagupan (Philippines), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Lokoja (Nigeria), Portmore (Jamaica), C o n c e p c i o n / Ta l c a h u a n o (Chile), Tehran (Iran), and Wel-lington (New Zealand).

The cities were selected based on the proposals submit-ted to UN-Habitat against its call for proposals in November 2012,

and they represent a good bal-ance of geographical and eco-nomic distribution, population

size, hazard profiles and com-mitment to the resilience agenda.

un-habitat selects 10 cities for resilience profiling programme

DFS gears up to ensure fire safety of buildingsThe increase in the number of highrises in Delhi has raised concerns about the fire safety of these structures. “Exten-sive development of infra-structure, mainly high-rises, and the increase in traffic are making firefighting difficult. With increase in the number of highrises, especially resi-dential complexes, fire safety has become a serious concern. It is difficult for us to inspect all highrises,” said A K Sharma,

Director, Delhi Fire Service (DFS).

Last year, the fire depart-ment carried out a drive to ensure buildings, especially schools and hospitals, were prepared to deal with any fire incident. Close to 4,426 schools were inspected last year, of which 2,738 were given fire clearance. Officials said 1,688 schools had been asked to upgrade the facility and apply again for clearance.

Drivers cause majority of road accidents, says ministerThe analysis of road accident data received from states/union territories revealed that the driver’s error is the single most important factor responsible

for accidents, which is about 77.5%, said Sarve Satyanaray-ana, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways.

About 2.4% of accidents are

the result of pedestrian error, cyclists cause about 1.3% acci-dents, bad roads account for 1.5%, while 1.6% and 1.0% acci-dents are attributed to faulty vehicles and weather condi-tions, respectively. An esti-mated 14.8% accidents are caused by various other rea-sons like stray animals, falling boulders, neglect of civic bod-ies etc.

The minister said the government has taken sev-eral steps, including the National Road Safety Policy, to minimise road accidents in the country.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Munic-ipal Corporation is to carry out a safety audit of the Pune-Mumbai highway before starting the bus rapid transit system (BRTS) on recommendation of the World Bank.

Standing Committee

Chairman Navnath Jagtap said IIT-Powai will be appointed to conduct the safety audit, at an expenditure of ₨16.40 lakh.

According to the proposal submitted by the engineering department, there are 20 exit and entry points between Phugewadi

and Nigdi, from service lanes to the ‘express lane’ of the highway. Also, there are five subways for vehicles to move from one side of the road to the other. As a result, there could be some hurdles in operating the BRTS on the high-way stretch.

Pimpri-Chinchwad to conduct safety audit of Pune-Mumbai Road

Bihar to introduce road safety in high school syllabus

Safety audit of roads to be conducted in Kerala

The Bihar government has decided to include road safety in the syllabus of high schools from the 2014 aca-demic session, said Brishen Patel, Transport Minister.

“Millions of students in class nine and 10 will study road safety in detail. We have decided to introduce road safety in their syllabus after it was successfully intro-duced in middle schools,” Patel said.

Patel said that with the incidence of road accidents rising by the day, and with data available to show that most victims of road acci-dents were in the 10-20 age range, the need for such les-sons was necessary.

Traffic experts and police personnel say the alarming rate of accidents is mainly caused by poor observance of traffic rules and use of alco-hol by drivers.

The Motor Vehicle Depart-ment (MVD) has been asked to conduct a comprehensive road safety audit to lower the number of accidents in Ker-ala. Besides national high-ways, district-level audits will also cover all major and minor roads.

The aim of the road safety

audit is to identify defec-tive roads and bridges, roads that have to be widened or geometrically reconstructed, junctions that need improve-ment and removing obstruc-tions to the smooth flow of traffic.

sAfeTy


A State Data Centre (SDC) was recently inaugurated by the Jammu and Kashmir Govern-ment. The SDC will provide facilities like central repository of the state, secure data storage, disaster recovery and data set of the National Population Reg-ister (NPR). This is the first IT infrastructure project commis-sioned in the state. The SDC will also host and manage e-gover-nance application of different departments.

“We have set up an SDC for supporting e-governance ini-tiatives in Jammu and Kashmir.

The centre has been set up by the IT department under the National e-Governance plan

(NeGP),” said Feroz Ahmed Khan, Minister of State for Information Technology.

State Data Centre for Jammu & Kashmir

RTOs data to be available on a national platformIn India, out of 993 Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) across all the states and Union Territories, 987 RTOs have their data of registra-tion of vehicles and driv-ing license holders under the national register. The data available with these RTOs will now be available on one integrated national platform.

“The Ministry of Road

Transport and Highways has planned a National Transport Project for com-puterisation and interlink-ing of all the RTOs/ DTOs (Regional and District Transport Offices) across the country. A couple of years back the portals VAHAN

and SARTHI were launched to provide IT-based solu-tions for Vehicle Registra-tion and Licensing,” said Dr CP Joshi, Union Minister for Road Transport and High-ways. VAHAN is designed to automate vehicle registra-tion, permits, taxes, fitness certificates, etc. Whereas, SARTHI deals with issuance of driving license, learning license, conductor license to

citizens and license for driv-ing school establishments.

Having the data online will not only eliminate dupli-cation of driving licenses but will also ensure to record data of driving offences or challans at one place, the ministry said.

Tamil Nadu residents to get delivery status of govt services on mobiles

chennai goes hi-tech to address grievances

The Tamil Nadu government is planning to launch an SMS-based service which will facil-itate tracking and delivery of government services for the citizens and the government officials, said Mukkur N Sub-ramanian, Information and Technology Minister.

The state government has

planned to invest ₨20 lakh in the project. In the first phase, the SMS-based system will cover around 10 services of the revenue department and the social welfare department, including the issue of certifi-cates and the distribution of marriage assistance schemes.

The Chennai Municipal Corpo-ration is to employ women with good communication skills at the newly inaugurated state-of-the-art grievance system at the Ripon Buildings. The new grievance cell will comprise 10 complaint-receiving units and a complaint tracking software manned by women.

Howeve, the complaint cell is expected to involve male staff during night shifts. Mayor Saidai S Duraisamy

said, “The idea of introducing more women employees is to mellow down the agitated call-ers as the women staff could comparatively provide pleas-ing replies than their male counterparts.”

The complaints can be lodged by dialing 1913 and residents will be intimated in return through SMS. The com-plainant will also be informed through the phone about the action taken.

The Maharashtra government is in the process of implement-ing cloud computing solutions through MahaGov Cloud. The state government will provide cloud-based services to state departments and corporations in partnership with companies such as VMware and Micro-soft . “State departments host-ing their applications on the MahaGov Cloud will make possible better management of the state’s IT infrastructure, and also bring about transpar-ency, efficiency and decrease in costs,” said Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Information Tech-nology (IT), Government of Maharashtra.

“By spending less than ₨2 crore on cloud computing technologies, for instance, we

have been able to save over ₨50 crore in physical server costs. We no longer buy physi-cal servers. Instead, we deploy virtual machines,” Aggarwal added.

The state government has adopted different clouds with the two vendors—VMware for most critical applications and Microsoft for building apps to address citizens’ civic issues.

MahaGov Cloud to speed up services

Punjab launches e-governance projects in 22 districts

haryana launches host of services online

The Punjab government has launched e-governance proj-ects in all the 22 districts of Punjab. This follows the suc-cessful implementation of the e-governance initiative in Pun-jab’s Transport Department.

“The project initiated first time in India by the transport department was fully success-ful and has been effectively implemented in all the dis-tricts,” said Transport Minis-ter Ajit Singh Kohar.

With the roll out of the e-governance project, Pun-jab is the first state in the

country to have introduced Smart Card facility for driv-ing licences and certificates for registration of vehicles.

Other facilities include web based payment of taxes and fee and an online sys-tem for vehicle registration at dealer point.

The website (www.haryana-transport.gov.in), e-payment gateway and SMS facility of the regulatory wing of the State Transport Department was launched recently by Haryana Chief Minister Bhu-pinder Singh Hooda.

The new online services aim to help citizens by facil-itating processes and will also bring more transpar-ency to the functioning of the department.

Principal Secretary, Trans-port Department, Hard-eep Kumar said that with the launch of the web por-tal, people would no longer

have to visit the registering or licences offices as they could access the services from their homes.

e-goverNANce

Dr CP Joshi, Union Minister, Road Transport and Highways, Govt of India.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister, Haryana.


cii-igBc’s conference on green cities & Townships charts new course for sustainable growthCII-IGBC’s Conference on Green Cities & Townships was held from 25-26 April 2013 in Mumbai. Lead-ing national and international experts shared their thoughts and perspectives on the theme of the conference — ‘Integrated and self contained cities & townships with green, smart and sustainable development’. Over 230 delegates comprising various stakeholders, including government, urban devel-opment authorities and municipal corporations, academia, consul-tants, manufacturers, builders and developers participated in the two-day conference.

The event was marked by eight technical sessions and one panel discussion that focused on key areas, such as, sustainable city plan-ning, low carbon cities, urban mass housing and sustainable mobility. Case studies and success stories were also highlighted during these sessions.

Experts at the panel discussion underlined the need and impor-tance of generating public aware-ness. The panelists also stressed the importance of providing ade-quate public open spaces, facilitat-ing affordable housing, and proper handling of consumer waste in mak-ing the future cities and townships sustainable.

About the demographic situa-tion of India, V Suresh, Chairman, Conference on Green Cities & Town-ships said, “India has added a pop-ulation of about 20 crore within a decade i.e., two crore per annum. The population in 2001 was 101 crore, which increased to 121 crore by 2011. The urban population has increased significantly. There were 5,000 cities in 2001 and the number grew to 7,300 cities by 2011. India needs integrated, self-sustainable large townships. As on date, more than 30 pilot townships across India are going green with IGBC’s Green Township Rating programme.”

A booklet on ‘Townships of India Going Green’ and the World Green Building Council’s report on ‘The Business Case for Green Build-ing’ were also released during the conference.

launch of igBc’s green existing Building rating system

As part of the event, IGBC, with the support of all the stakeholders, launched the first-of-its-kind Rat-ing System to address sustainabil-ity aspects in existing buildings. Anita Arjundas, Managing Direc-tor and CEO, Mahindra Life Space Developers Ltd, while releasing the IGBC Existing Building Rating Sys-tem, said, “The developments have to be inclusive so that all strata of society can be benefitted.”

This rating tool facilitates build-ing owners and facility managers in implementation of green building strategies, measure their impacts

and sustain the performance in the long run.

Gurmit Singh Arora, Vice Chair-man, IGBC-Mumbai Chapter said, “Green buildings make business sense and can be a profitable busi-ness. Creating the energy and water resources within the build-ings improve the profitability for the sellers and buyers of the homes alike. It is time not to compromise with the ecological balance for eco-nomic growth and development.”

Key observations and recommenda-tions of the conference:

• The concept of smart citiesand their immense potential to address various issues in India was underlined.

• Low-costhousingtechniquesand pre-fabricated constructions were highlighted as solutions to meet the housing needs in the fast growing urban centres in India.

• There is a need to developtools for eco-city master planning to ensure sustainability in urban development.

• Importance of promoting

public transportation in address-ing present issues and con-cerns of urban mobility in India highlighted.

• Mixedland-usedevelopmentand integration of land-use with transportation were stressed as

key strategies for promoting non-motorised mobility in overcrowded Indian cities.

• Integrated municipal solidwaste management and decentral-ised wastewater treatment systems highlighted.

eveNTs

Seen from L-R: S Raghupathy, Executive Director, CII-Godrej GBC; Anita Arjundas, Managing Director & CEO, Mahindra Life Space Developers Ltd; R Mukundan, Chairman, CII-Western Region and Managing Director – Tata Chemicals Ltd; V Suresh, Chairman, Conference on Green Cities & Townships and Director, HIRCO Projects Ltd; C Shekar Reddy, President, CREDAI National; Gurmit Singh Arora ,Vice Chairman, IGBC-Mumbai Chapter & Managing Director, Rajco Metal Industries Pvt Ltd; Kaushlendra Narain Sinha, Regional Director, CII-WR and S Srinivas, Principal Counsellor, CII-Godrej GBC at the launch of ‘IGBC Green Existing Building O&M Rating System’.


south asian cities summit 2013 More than 200 delegates

attended the South Asian Cities Summit 2013. The summit was organised by the Cities Network Cam-paign from 17-18 April 2013, in association with, the Depart-ment of Environment (Delhi Government), the All India Institute of Local Self Gov-ernment (AIILSG), the World Resources Institute (WRI) – India, The Green Mantra and UNESCO. The highlights of the summit were the forma-tion of the South Asian May-ors’ Forum and the Delhi Dec-laration 2013.

Special guests at the event included Sanjeev Kumar, Sec-retary Environment, Depart-ment of Environment, Govt of NCT of Delhi; Dr Jatin Modi, President, UCLG-ASPAC; Ranjit Chavan, Director General, All India Institute of Local Self Government; Hansa Patel, Executive Advi-sor AIILSG and Global Advisor Cities Network Campaign; Rajesh Tacho , Minister of Urban Develop-ment, Arunachal Pradesh; Prof Mohan Munasinghe, MIND Sri Lanka, and mayors, commissioners and senior city officials from across South Asian cities.

The Cities Network Cam-paign is a global initiative to connect cities, organisa-tions, sector/subject experts from academic and research organisations, from across the

world to share their best prac-tices, policies, advise, funding and commitment to reduce

climate change impact and make the world more green and clean.

The international building and construction show, Big 5 Construct

India 2013, will be held from September 2-4, 2013 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai. The Big 5 Construct India 2013 is organised by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce (FICCI), the Ministry of Urban Development (Government of India) in association with dmg :: events.

GreenUrbanScape Asia is to be held on November 7-9, 2013 at Singapore Expo. The event is to provide a dynamic marketplace for delegates and trade visitors from the region to discover the very best and latest landscape and urban greenery solutions from around the world.

Attendees will also be able to learn the best practices, discuss the latest industry trends and network with academics, practitioners and policymakers at the International Skyrise Greenery Conference and the International Landscape Industry Association Summit.

IFAT India 2013, organised by Messe München International, will be held from October 24-26,

2013 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai. IFAT India provides an excellent international platform for showcasing the full range of environmental technologies and services. Domestic and international exhibitors display a comprehensive product portfolio, from basic to highly sophisticated machinery and environmental solutions.

south asian cities summit 2013

upcoming events

events

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focus cities 08 policy 12 finance 13 water 14 green 16 ... · in product design: un page no. 08 page no. 12 page no. 14 page no. 16 page no. 18 aDB makes first investment in indian