Municipalika 2018

Municipalika 2018: Smart and Sustainable Cities an international conference and exhibition was held at Bombay Exhibition Center
from 19th - 21st September 2018. The main objective of the three day event is to share create a platform for exchanging ideas and showcasing the best urban solutions that have been successfully implemented in various Indian cities and abroad. The conference was sponsored by Government of Maharashtra and supported by Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. The three day conference and exhibition was attended by mayors, municipal commissioners, senior urban development officials from the Central and State Governments, Urban Local Bodies and Housing Agencies from all over India, built environment professionals, architects, planners, and engineers to answer the question: “How do we plan, design, build and maintain sustainable built environment and smart cities”? The conference had sessions on Resilient and Secure Cities, Healthy Cities, Green Cities, Connected Cities, Digital Cities and on Integrated Cities for self-contained cities. The Humane Cities session deliberated on the Housing for All Agenda, progress achieved and the path forward for achieving the goal by 2022.A detailed agenda of the event is provided as Annex – 1. The discussions in the sessions were focused on sustainable and smart urban development, where the sessions stressed on the importance of partnerships, inclusive frameworks, project monitoring mechanism and frameworks for implementation of large scale urban projects which share the objectives of New Urban Agenda. Administrators from LAHDC (Leh & Kargil) have attended the session at Municipalika. The group was headed by Ms Zaida Bhao, Chief Executive Officer, Leh Development Authority. The group has attended various sessions in the conference and has

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documented few strategies and technologies that can be implemented in Leh and Kargil. List of members who have visited the event from Leh is mentioned as below. Sno Name of the official Designation 1 Ms Zaida Bhano C.E.O, Ladakh Development Authority, Leh 2 Mr Sonam Chosjor Assistant Commissioner, Revenue, Kargil 3 Mr Rigzin Spalgon Administrator, Municipal Committee, Leh 4 Mr Abdul Gafar Zargar Executive Officer, Municipal Committee, Kargil 5 Mr Abdul Mutalib Executive Engineer, R&B Division, Kargil 6 Mr Tundup Dorje Junior Inspector, Municipal Committee, Leh 7 Mr Iftikar Ahmed Assistant Engineer, PHE, Leh 8 Mr Deleks Namgial General Secretary, ALTOA (All Ladakh Tour Operator Association) 9 Mr Stanzin Nurboo Joint Secretary, ALTOA(All Ladakh Tour Operator Association) 10 Mr Rishav Paul Architect, LEDeG 11 Mr Smanla Dorje Consultant, BORDA 12 Mr Sunil Kraleti Urban Planner, LEDeG

Sessions attended by the group:
 Integrated water management and waste water treatment and management.
 Green buildings
 Sanitation for all
 Participative cities - Open house citizens interface
 Innovative use of cement, concrete, construction chemicals and performance enhancers
 Connected cities – Sustainable Urban Mobility

Learning from Sessions: Integrated water management: Session in the conference covered topics on benefits of water metering technologies and how water metering can help city in conserving water, make the user more responsible and help the water utility in making it more financially sustainable. The sessions also focused on water conservation practices, which help in replenishing the ground water of a region. On the same case study presented by Rajasthan proved to be very helpful for the group. Innovative practices such as oil & grease traps at discharge

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points are observed to be simple, innovative, and easily implementable in Leh and Kargil towns. Such interventions would be helpful in reducing contamination of groundwater. Participatory Planning approaches: Bhumi world, a reality project was showcased in the conference which is being developed on the concept of participative governance and self redevelopment of areas trough community engagement. This session was particularly helpful for the Special committee members who were working on planning approaches for Leh and were exploring concepts such as participative planning in cities. The sessions also stressed on creating space for children and importance of involving children in city development and move towards making children friendly cities. Idea Hunt: One of the most appreciated practices that was showcased in session was Idea Hunt, which is a crowd source initiative being run by Kerala Government, where public proposes an idea to develop an area through a web portal. The idea will be vetted by the government and if feasible, would implement the same. Such new innovative methods of community engagement by the government was agreed to be needed in Leh by the group members. Sustainable Urban Mobility The group attended the sustainable urban mobility session on Day 3 of the event. The session covered topics such as
• Improvement of footpaths is urban areas
• Introducing E- Rickshaws which reduces air and noise pollution
• Requirement of alternative mobility options which have low emissions is very necessary
• Need of promoting public transport
• Importance of Mass Rapid Transport Systems for our growing cities
• Average speed in cities is 10 kmph due to congestion, therefore public transport is necessary for reducing congestion and pollution in an urban area Though the sessions were more focused on mass rapid transport systems, there was very limited discussion on walkabilty in urban areas and importance of non motorized transport. The group strongly felt the need to present the Leh story on walakable spaces in next Municipalika conference.

Municipal Governance: From the overall sessions in the conference, decentralized approaches to municipal governance and training of urban local bodies for mainstreaming of reforms was suggested in almost all the presentations.

Solid waste management: Session on Solid Waste Management paid more emphasis on waste segregation at household level and door to door collection of solid waste. Construction and demolition waste also received a lot of discussion in the conference where in cities have been developing demolition and construction waste policies for their respective cities. With huge construction activity happening in Leh, members of the

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committee strongly feel Leh needs a construction and demolition waste policy immediately before it’s too late.

Sanitation: Sanitation session has showcased examples of pan city sewerage treatment systems and the example of Rajasthan’s cluster level Sewerage Treatment Plant is one of the approaches that were well received by the group. Very limited discussion was held on Fecal Sludge Treatment Plants.

Municipalika Exhibit: The event also exhibited pavilions from national and international vendors for municipal services, technology vendors and solutions that can be adopted by local bodies for enhancing services in their respective towns. Mr Spalgon, Chief Administrator of Leh Municipal Committee got in touch with Tata suction truck dealer and has exchanged contacts for procuring the same for improving towns sanitation purposes. Ms Zahida, C.E.O Leh Development Authority, collected information on Tata Ace Hopper truck for solid waste management in Pangong Lake where Solid waste management interventions are being planned by the administration.

Cubicles for Public toilets: Partitions for the ongoing bus stand public toilet, cubical partitions have been ordered from the event after Architect from LEDeG, Mr RIshav Paul found the quality of the material and suitable for the current public toilets project in Leh. The material has been procured and is being transported to Leh.

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Officials from Leh and Kargil have exchanged contacts from many vendors for either procuring or discussing the available technology options with higher officials for the towns of Leh and Kargil. The group was well benefited from the exhibition.