Global symposium in JNU on disaster resilient smart cities

The objective of the three-days symposium is to provide policy inputs in proposed 100 smart cities of India.

The Special Centre for Disaster Research (SCDR) in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in collaboration with Netexplo Smart Cities Accelerator  Group  of  Paris and Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD) is organizing a three-days international symposium on disaster resilient smart cities with an aim to provide core infrastructure and smart solutions in 100 smart cities to be developed by the Central government.

Speaking on occasion, Mr Rahul Kapoor, the Mission Director, Smart Cities Mission, discussed the three key parameters of building disaster resilient Climate-smart cities: synergized urban planning, resilient infrastructure and smart solutions for citizen service delivery. Prof Amita Singh, Chairperson of SCDR said initiatives in building partnership for knowledge sharing and building resilience becomes crucial in present scenario. 

In the inaugural session on Wednesday, the Mayor of Surat Municipal Corporation, Mr. Jagdishbhai Patel, was felicitated with Smart City Award by Dr Pramod Kumar, Registrar, JNU and Mr Marcus Goddard, President, Netexplo International University Network-Paris, for his commendable work on developing Surat as an exemplar in building Disaster Resilient Smart City. The initiatives taken by him, as the Mayor of Surat Municipal Corporation, in mapping flood prone vulnerable areas in Surat, strengthening inter agency network between the state and district administration for dredging river fronts, capacity building through decentralized training has helped in reducing casualties and strengthening governance in the city.

The National  Institute  of  Disaster  Management (NIDM),  Indian  Council  of  Social  Science  research  (ICSSR),  Indian  Oil  Corporation  Ltd,  Delhi Transco  Ltd,  United  Nations  Environment  Programme  and  Institute  for  Studies  in  Industrial Development are also collaborating in organizing the event. In addition, experts of several national and international organizations are also participating.