UrbanShift Country Project focuses on the significance of IntegratedPlanning approaches for developing livable cities in India. The project activities promote sustainable mobility, coastal resilience, biodiversity preservation, inclusive planning, adoption of NbS, etc. in the partner cities - Pune, Surat, Agra, and Puducherry.

The impact of #urbanshift would be enhanced by nationally scaling up the partner cities’ learnings. The inaugural session was graced by Mr Kunal Kumar (Joint Secretary, MoHUA), Mr Atul Bagai (Head, UNEP India office), Mr Aloke Barnwal (Senior Climate Change Specialist, GEF), Mr Hitesh Vaidya (Director, NIUA) and Mr Emani Kumar (Executive Director, ICLEI, South Asia)

The agenda was structured such that city presentations were followed by expert opinions to bridge the gap between theory and implementation. Nikhil Mijar from PMC discussed Pune’s Transit-oriented Development efforts towards incorporating Non-motorised Transport infrastructure and networks.

In response, O P Agarwal (Member-Governing Council, NIUA, Ex-CEO WRI), expressed the need for a roadmap to enable TOD implementation in Indian cities citing examples and professional experiences.

Pathik Gandhi from #SMC presented on low-emission Resilient Coastal Development Plan of the Dumas Seafront Area, followed by further insights by Peeyush Sekhsaria (Independent Consultant, Natural Resource Management and Disaster and Risk Management), who conversed on building resilience of coastal areas by application of Nature-basedSolutions.

Sarika Chakravarty, Team Lead, UrbanShift Country Project at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), took us through the project contours.

The project aims to support sustainable cities where knowledge exchange and capacity development inform the implementation of compact, nature-positive, climate-resilient, inclusive, and gender-sensitive approaches across 4 cities in India (Pune, Surat, Agra and Puducherry) and support scale-up nationally.