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The government, academic institutions and citizen bodies need to work together to make cities sustainable, S Krishnan, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Tamil Nadu, has said.
At a meeting on ‘Chennai as a Global City’ organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) here on Thursday, he said the city has always been in the forefront of trade since ancient times. BusinessLine was the media partner for the event.
“What we need to do is to maintain that position. This can be done only by participation from people, private and non-governmental agencies, and academics institutions in the development process,” Krishnan added.
The city’s landscape is changing, he said. The immigrant population is on the rise. There are more vehicles on roads, and areas such as Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur are seeing unprecedented growth. While the city’s growth was stagnant, the two areas grew at 25-28 per cent. The contribution from tier II and tier III cities are also on the rise.
Partnerships with academic institutions and other agencies, according to him, will help in making decisions that are evidence-based. For example, academic cooperation could help put together data on how different countries have tackled similar problems. Agencies could gather data on different indices such as air quality, health, sanitation and education.
Krishnan said the State government is currently working on a sleep deprivation project, in partnership with an organisation, to analyse how it affects a person’s cognitive ability and capacity to work. “We are also working on a cleanliness index for the city with a Kolkata-based organisation. It will be released in a month.” Jagan Shah, Director, NIUA, said evidence-based policies will help in targeted investment and hence are sustainable. Ram Venkataramani, President, MCCI, said the organisation is working on an urban observatory for Chennai that will record information on different parameters such as air quality, crime, health, sanitation and water. “A steering committee has been formed to take this forward.”
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