Citizen friendly initiatives of four Maharashtra cities win accolades from the Centre

Mumbai| Delhi : 19 January 2022

Cities from Maharashtra have dominated the #Streets4People Challenge organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the Smart Cities Mission to make public places more people friendly.

Pune, Pimpir-Chinchwad, Nagpur and Aurangabad figure among the 11 cities selected for scaling up their pilot projects and creating permanent public infrastructure.

In a competition that was open to 113 smart cities, 38 cities piloted re-imagination of an important street each by prioritizing them for pedestrians. The Streets4People competition required cities redesign their streets as public spaces through low-cost innovative measures making them safe for citizens, more particularly senior citizens and children.

Of the 38 cities who submitted their proposal 11 cities – Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Kochi, Kohima, Nagpur, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Udaipur, Ujjain and Vijayawada were selected as pioneers for showcasing creative on ground transformation and extensive collaboration with citizens.

People friendly initiatives of Maharashtra Cities.

Pune won the accolades for reclaiming space along several roads to create safe and exciting ‘experience zones’ for all citizens. The city activated these edges by painting the spaces, conducting laughter yoga sessions, music sessions, introducing kids play areas etc. Going ahead, the city plans to build wider footpaths and install street furniture at different locations.

Pimpri-Chinchwad was hailed as the walking and cycling champion for reclaiming space from carriageway for segregated cycle lanes and footpaths. The city worked closely with their Street Design Consultants to further their city wide Harit Setu Masterplan, connecting green spaces across the city.

Aurangabad leveraged its success of the ‘Open Street Campaign’ by reclaiming carriageway space by vibrant paints and billboards. They also added low cost seating that allowed citizens to spend time and enjoy the newly created space. The Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation and the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation plan to transform the stretch from Kranti Chowk to Cannought area in a sustainable way, giving it a modern look.

Working closely with technical experts and key stakeholders, Nagpur strategically reorganised the street section along the very busy Sitabuldi market and Sakkadara to allocate more walking space for people. The city used colourful paints, old car tyres as planters and seating made with scrap materials to demarcate the new walkways. Nagpur Smart & Sustainable City Development Corporation Ltd will further facilitate bicycle rental, e-rickshaw projects as part of its green city initiative.

Making school zones and market areas pedestrian only zones (Gurugram), making heritage precincts a car free zone (Ujjain), reorganizing traffic flow at local bus station to promote people safety (Udaipur), enlivening dead corridors and spaces under flyover with colourful street art murals (Karnal) and promoting street museum through art display (Kohima) were some of the other noteworthy people friendly initiatives that won accolades from the Centre.

Scaling up pilot projects

The 11 cities that have won the Statge I of the Streets4People Challenge will receive cash award of Rs 50 lakhs. In Stage 2, these cities will use their learnings and continue to work towards a vision for “Healthy Streets”—integrating walking, cycling, and public transport to make streets safe and convenient for all.

Streets4People Challenge inspired over 600 civil society organizations and more than 2000 design professionals across the country to sign-up to help their cities. The Institute for Transportation & Development Policy, ITDP is the knowledge partner, providing guidance through preparation of resource material and facilitating online peer learning workshops.

Season Two of #Streets4People competition launched

Meanwhile, the Centre has announced Season Two of the #Streets4People challenge. Any smart city, capital city or a city with population above 5 lakhs, other than the 11 already selected, can take part in the competition.

For details visit : https://smartnet.niua.org/indiastreetchallenge/