ASSOCIATION OF MUNICIPALITIES AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITIES (AMDA)

EVENT DAIRY

Training Programme on Urban Greens

A Two-day Training Programme on Urban Green Spaces was organized jointly by National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB), Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) and Association of Municipalities and Development Authorities (AMDA) on 8th and 9th December, 2011 at the Conference Hall of Human Settlement Management Institute (HSMI), Lodhi Road, New Delhi. In this programme 25 Senior Level Officers dealing with the subject participated from Municipal Corporations, Development Authorities, State Pollution Control Board, Dept. of Environment from the National Capital Region.

The programme was inaugurated by the Secretary, Urban Development, Ministry of Urban Development, Govt of India. In his inaugural address he mentioned that the present level of urbanization of 31% is bound to increase and cities have to be hospitable and to provide economic and support services for the increasing urban population so that all activities go in tandem. He emphasized to develop satellite cities around metro and mega cities within a travel distance of about 1 hour so as to decongest the mega cities. He stressed for proper town planning and development of urban green spaces in large and metro cities so as to provide congenial living environment. He pointed out that green belt provided around the towns and cities in the Master Plan sometime is not developed as envisaged. For that purpose a larger area should be provided as green around the cities and all the natural features such as ridge and water bodies should have urban forestry. There is a need for urban agriculture for sustainable food security. The mechanism for development of urban green spaces earmarked in the Master Plan should be spelt out clearly whether the acquisition of all such green spaces will be acquired by the government or other concerned agencies or the same can be developed through development incentives by the individual owner of the land. He also emphasized for provision of Public Maidans and Playgrounds as per the requirement which will be part of the open spaces in the city.

Earlier in the opening remarks Member Secretary, National Capital Region Planning Board and Chairperson, AMDA highlighted that urban green are not only important from aesthetic point of view but are the main recreational spaces and also contribute significantly in mitigating the climatic change affect, optimization of energy use, conservation of water and control the pollutants in and around cities. Urban greens should amount to 15-20% of the developed areas in towns and cities. She also correlated the critical data on pollution level in Delhi vis-à-vis the importance of urban greens in controlling the pollutants.

In 2 day programme lectures were delivered by experts from Dept. of Landscape Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, Dept. of Ground Water, Jamia Milia University, HUDCO, TERI, Forest Department, Govt. of NCT, Dept. of Environmental Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, ITC Green Centre, Gurgaon and Professional Landscape Architects in the field covering the topics such as elements and resources of landscape, watershed management and water conservation, Landscape and ground water, wet lands and their significance, urban forestry and urban bio-diversity and maintenance and management of urban green spaces.

In the afternoon of 9th December, 2011 participants were taken for the site visit to the Yaumna Bio-diversity Park, Wazirabad, Delhi being developed by Delhi Development Authority in technical collaboration with the Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE), University of Delhi. The bio-diversity park is part of Natural Heritage of Delhi where many ecological services and goods are being restored alongwith preservation of biotic communities and hundred of species that used to thrive in the past.

The participants appreciated the programme and were of the view that more and more of such programmes be organized with focus on best practices for replication. In the end, the participants were given Certificates by the M.S., NCRPB and Chairperson, AMDA. They were also given free saplings for planting in their respective towns and cities.