Kohima Smart City registers for ‘Streets for People Challenge’

Dimapur, Oct. 6 (EMN): Kohima Smart city is one of the 113 cities that have registered for the “Streets for People Challenge”. The challenge is an initiative of the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to inspire cities to create walking-friendly streets through quick measures, in response to Covid-19.

The challenge was launched by Haredeep Singh Puri, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs on September 11, 2020 during a virtual event organised by the Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA, an update from Kohima Smart City informed.

The minister stated that as the lockdown is lifted, cities face many challenges in providing safe, affordable, and equitable modes of transport that enable social distancing. Limited public transport options, narrow, crowded sidewalks particularly in market places and deterioration of mental health, are key issues that must be addressed on priority. He opined that ‘pedestrianisation of streets for walking and creating public spaces is a crucial step towards mitigating these issues’.

‘For Kohima Smart City, our strength is the people and we recognise the need for the community to be at the heart of the process who must be empowered to make informed decisions affecting their lives through the process thereby paving the way for a sustainable urban planning,’ the update stated.

The challenge will support cities across the country to develop a unified vision of ‘Streets for People’ in consultation with stakeholders and citizens and is open for all the 100 smart cities, all capital cities of states and UTs and cities with a population of over 5 lakh population.

The first online workshop “Taking the first step” was held on October 1, which included panel discussion and sharing of stories from the ground to help cities kickstart the challenge.

The challenge requires each city to test at least one flagship walking project and enhance liveability in one neighbourhood. Streets and public spaces around transit hubs, heritage zones, commercial streets, market areas, recreational corridors or any high footfall zones can be considered as potential locations for the flagship project.

The challenge will run in two stages.

Stage 1: Pilot intervention and conceptual scale-up plan (Sep. ’20 – Jan. ’21)

Step 1. (Sep. ’20 – Nov. ’20): Identifying the pilot locations where cities select at least one pilot for flagship walking project and neighbourhood through effective community engagement and conduct a preliminary site analysis.

Step 2. (Nov. ’20 – Dec. ’20): Designing pilots through a city-led design competition during which cities launch the design competition for duration of one month and evaluate and select the best design proposals through engaging with local officials, citizens, experts, and other stakeholders.

Step 3. (Jan. ’21 – Feb. ’21): Testing and evaluation of pilots during which cities test pilots and document learnings and develop a conceptual city-level scale-up plan.

Stage 2: Scaling up the transformation and strategising measures for long-term impact (Feb. ’21- May ’21).

Based on the performance in stage 1, cities will be shortlisted for stage 2 to further develop the implementation of the conceptual city-level scale-up plan submitted in stage 1. Cities will also strategise and initiate the implementation of measures for long-term impact with inputs from national and international experts.