Urban India’s parking woes: an overview
Vehicular congestion and insufficient parking facilities are significant emerging challenges for India’s mega and metropolitan cities, severely impairing mobility. Although curtailed by constitutional
Ahmedabad (T)
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BRTS to now offer ride on 'caterpillar'
AHMEDABAD: Get ready for a ride on the first 'caterpillar' buses in Ahmedabad. These buses will be the new breed that will be joining the existing BRTS bus fleet. Technically called the 'articulated bus', these buses are 18-meter long and can seat 130 passengers. Each of these new BRTS caterpillar buses will cost close to Rs 1.2 crore. In the next two weeks, the special 11-member committee on 'Urban Bus' of the union urban development ministry will come out with a detailed specifications for these buses. There are articulated buses running in Chennai, but they are not fit to run on BRTS corridor.
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Waste management neglects rag pickers
As governments grapple with mounting quantities of waste and draft policies to tackle it, waste pickers who earn their livelihood from collection, segregation and disposal of waste still remain neglected, reveals a new study by a non-government organisation. Accessing the welfare programmes and the prevalent rules for waste management in 14 major cities, Chintan, an environment action and research group, in its report ‘Failing the Grade’ has claimed that there was no city that has fully implemented the rules and policies for waste pickers.
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Where is the gas to implement Gujarat Court order?
Fertiliser, power sectors likely to resist shifting additional allocation for city vehicles The Gujarat High Court’s order regarding natural gas allocation for compulsory usage in all vehicles in the State has been hailed by environmental activists and the State government alike, but the fact still remains that India simply does not have enough gas to cope with higher demand. In directions issued on a writ petition filed by the Gujarat Rajya Autorickshaw Federation on Wednesday, the Gujarat High Court directed the State government to compel owners of all vehicles registered in the State to start using natural gas — even if it be at higher prices — within a year.
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All cars in Gujarat to switch to gas within a year: HC
AHMEDABAD: In an order which would impact lakhs of people owning cars, the Gujarat high court on Wednesday directed the state government to pass necessary laws to make it compulsory for all four-wheelers registered in Gujarat to convert to natural gas within one year. Further, the court gave two months to the state government to issue necessary orders to impose stringent restrictions to reduce pollution by fixing levels of emission to the minimum, at par with international norms. The order applies to both public and private vehicles running on petrol and diesel.
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Private players to green cities
AHMEDABAD: In order to achieve the norm of minimum 15% tree cover, the forest department is planning to adopt the public private partnership (PPP) model to increase the tree cover in eight municipal corporations and 159 nagar palikas in the state. The recent tree census taken up by the social forestry division of the forest department revealed that there were 33 lakh trees in the eight municipal corporations. The forest officials said that going by the minimum number of 15% green cover against the total geographical area, the eight municipal corporations need another 56.4 lakh tress of which Ahmedabad city requires the maximum of 13 lakh trees to achieve the target of 15%. This was followed by Surat which requires 12.37 lakh more trees.
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Tree count to help develop environment plans
AHMEDABAD: The first ever tree count taken up by the urban bodies will lead to the formation of a development plan for improving environment of the cities in the state. The state government officials said that a tree survey to estimate tree population in the rural areas, outside the forests of Gujarat, was done in 2003 and 2009, but no such assessment was carried out for the urban parts of the state. Hence in 2011, the social forestry department decided to conduct the first tree counting in all eight municipal corporations, urban authorities areas and 159 municipalities.
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Make tree space mandatory in development plans
AHMEDABAD: The forest department, in order to improve environmental status of the city, has decided to convert wasteland or common land in urban spaces into well-planted green areas. If there was shortage of such land, a city could utilize the vacant land in the areas situated on the periphery, under the urban development authorities, an official from the department said.
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BRTS report card: Six out of 30
AHMEDABAD: On demand bus schedules on SMS, bus ticket top-ups over internet, GPS-based surveillance, and an efficient e-ticketing system. No, it's not a wish list. Rather, it's a list of promises made to Amdavadis three years back, on the launch of Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). The citizens were assured that they could look forward to a hi-tech passenger travel experience, never before witnessed in India. Today, however, the BRTS sorely misses a key component - information technology, which was supposed to be the backbone of the organization. Without IT, there is not much hope for BRTS to meet the standards it had set for itself.
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Ahmedabad gets Special Mention World City Prize 2012
AHMEDABAD: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) was felicitated by the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize during the World Cities Summit 2012 on 2nd July in Singapore for its early success in implementing a city development plan which aims to transform India's seventh largest city into a more liveable, equitable and sustainable metropolis with a dynamic multi-sector economy and an emerging auto-hub. The award was given to Ahmedabad's Mayor Shri Hasit Vora and municipal commissioner Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra. It was awarded by Dr. Cheong Koon Hean, CEO, Housing & Development Board of Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew, a World City Prize nominating committee member.
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Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to use rooftop solar power
AHMEDABAD: Three public buildings in the city will use solar power to meet their daily energy needs by the end of the year. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation will have its south zone office in Maninagar, Memco sports complex and west zone office in Usmanpura using rooftop solar power. The purpose is to show Amdavadis that with high electricity prices, solar systems ensure handsome savings in the long run. The pay off period - time to recover investment in the power unit — can be less than two years, claim AMC officials.