Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) organised an online event called “Cycles4Change challenge and Streets for People Challenge-Season 2”.

Highlights

• During the event, ministry also launched a book titled “Nurturing Neighburhoods Challenge: Stories from the Field”.
• Event was chaired by Manoj Joshi, Secretary of MoHUA.
• Event was participated by global and Indian officials from partner organisations, representatives of winning cities, officials from Central and State Governments, as well as CEOs of 100 Smart Cities.

Winning cities

• During the event, MoHUA announced 11 winning cities for Streets for People Challenge, and 10 winning cities for Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge.
• These cities will now enter to scale up stage of the challenge. At this stage, projects undertaken will now be scaled up in a sustainable manner.

Inter-state challenge

The Smart Cities Mission has been organising inter-city challenges since 2020, for making public spaces more people-friendly. These challenges are organised in line with “2006 National Urban Transport Policy”. The policy of 2006 had called for a paradigm shift from car-centric roads to people-centric streets. In pat 18 months, these challenges namely Cycles4Change and Streets for People, have transformed into a nationwide movement beyond 100 Smart Cities.

Streets for people challenge

Under this challenge, 38 cites piloted re-imaginations of important streets by prioritizing them for pedestrians. Jury has selected 11 cities for the next phase of scale up. They will be awarded Rs. 50 lakhs each by MoHUA. 4 cities were given a special mention for their efforts during this challenge.

Who conducted the Streets for people challenge?

This challenge was conducted by MoHUA, with technical support from Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP India).

Second season of challenges

Ministry also launched the second season of Cycles4Change and Streets4People challenges. Any city which is not already in the top 11 winners, any smart city, city with more than 5 lakhs population, or, capital of state or UT, can apply for the challenge.