Strong Governance, Professionals Vital for Urban Planning: Experts

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Strong local governments, with a significant presence of dedicated professional urban planners, who can leverage cutting-edge technologies, will bring a huge impact on town planning of the country, said experts at a national conclave here today.

Highlighting the importance of recruiting professionals in the sector, they also made a strong pitch for a paradigm change by thinking differently.

They were speaking at a plenary session on ‘Intelligent, Digital Spatial Planning and Governance’ at the 73rd National Town and Country Planners Conference, organised by Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI), New Delhi, with the support of the Local Self Government Department, Govt. of Kerala.

Keshav Varma, Chairman, Sabarmati River Front Corporation Limited (SRFDCL), who attended through videoconferencing, said urban planners are the most relevant people today and the sector needs more professionals with mind-blowing ideas.

“We need strong local governance with a will as well as more dedicated professionals for urban planning. Kerala is an exception in this regard compared to other states in the country,” Varma observed.

V Uday Kumar, Deputy Director General, NIC, Govt. of India, said advent of cutting-edge technologies, like AI, Machine Learning (ML) and OpenAI, have transformed India’s geo-spatial ecosystem.

Kumar said in the last 10 years, the government has come out with a lot of game-changing initiatives like SVAMITVA, which is for survey of village areas, and NAKSHA (a geospatial land survey of urban habitations to create land records in urban areas in India). Besides, Bharat Maps, a multi-layered GIS platform, comprises seamless country-wise maps, satellite images and hybrid maps aligned as per the global geo-spatial standards.

He said the new Geo-Spatial Policy envisages survey and mapping of subsurface infrastructure in major cities and towns, besides National Digital Twin of major cities and towns by 2035.

The policy also focuses on conducting high resolution topographical survey and mapping, implementing high accuracy Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for the entire country and developing a Geo-spatial Knowledge Infrastructure (GKI) underpinned by integrated data and information framework by 2030.

Dr Abdul Razzak Mohamed, Professor, Department of Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada, said the digital economy has become an essential carrier for promoting the transformation of cities and economies.

According to Dr Mohamed, Socially Responsible Planning (SRP) must adhere to local needs, values and aspirations on both the household and neighbourhood scales.

“It is crucial for building climate-responsive, sustainable, resilient and inclusive neighbourhoods that provide households with social, cultural and environmental values. Local governments and communities play a vital role in supporting development agenda by adapting SRP of housing and mobility,” he noted.

Dr Bimal Patel, Chairman, HCP Design, and Former President, CEPT University, Ahmedabad; Dr Saswat Bandyopadhyay, Professor, CEPT University, Ahmedabad and Dr May Mathew, Founder Trustee and Chief Planner, Centre for Environmental Efficiency, Kochi, also spoke.

The two-day meet will deliberate on a host of live topics relating to urban and country development.