ICLEI Asia supports Asia BRTS initiative
ICLEI Asia, in collaboration with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Janamarg, CEPT University, the Centre of Excellence in Urban Transport and other partners, organised the first ever Asia Bus Rapid Transit Systems (BRTS) conference in Ahmedabad, Gujarat from 6-8 September 2012 to exchange city experiences on BRTS planning, implementation and operations processes. 14 participating cities signed a treaty on forming an India BRTS association, which will act as a body of consolidated support and cooperation involving all Indian BRT projects and may include other Asian cities later. The municipal commissioner of Ahmedabad, Guruprasad Mohapatra said this will be sent to the urban development ministry for approval. Thimphu, Kathmandu, and Matale -three ICLEI member cities from South Asia- participated in the event and received guidance from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation regarding the process of visioning, planning or implementing BRTS projects. "We want this association to meet once every two years mainly for knowledge sharing," says Mohapatra. The South Asia office of ICLEI has supported the idea of forming such an association for knowledge and experience sharing.
At the ICLEI World Congress and Rio +20: Urban sustainability is the way forward, say local governments across South Asia
Bringing home the point that local development is key to achieving national and global development goals, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, speaking at ICLEI’s Rio + 20 Global Town Hall said “the road to sustainability runs through the world’s towns and cities” and applauded mayors and local government officials from different parts of the world for their individual efforts in advancing urban sustainability. “The country is the sum of cities. If cities do not work, then countries cannot work”, he added.
The team of South Asian city representatives in Brazil were the municipal commissioners of Thane (RA Rajeev); Bhubaneswar (Vishal K Dev); Guntur (Kuthati Sudhakar); Hyderabad (M T Krishna Babu); former municipal commissioner of Kolkata Arnab Roy; the mayor of Thimphu (Kinley Dorji) and the mayor of Malé (Mohamed Anwar) as well as Farhad Suri, Councillor and Leader of Opposition of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation and other city mayors from India.
Representing cities with diverse development needs, one point that underlay South Asian cities' experiences shared at ICLEI's World Congress and Rio +20 was that city goverments could well be the drivers of change, for their cities and beyond. RA Rajeev from Thane mentioned at the ICLEI World Congress that Indian cities are embracing renewable energy and energy efficiency and MT Krishna Babu from Hyderabad, in the same vein, highlighted that the ones best suited to implement development initiatives are local governments as they are “closest to the people, and are both responsive and accountable.”
Over 80 mayors signed the message the ICLEI World Congress took forward to Rio+20, which emphasised the need for better mobilisation, more inclusion, and proper recognition of local governments as key actors in sustainability processes.
At the Rio+20 summit, countries have come up with a scope of agreement that will chart sustainable development in the next years. But as Ban Ki-moon voiced at the Global Town Hall, change needs to be led by cities, not countries.
