Green city

With the Tamil Nadu government and the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP)
signing the final document to
bring Madras under the global
Sustainable Cities Programme
(SCP), key environmental concerns
will now become a part of development planning for the city.

The UNDP will provide a grant
of US $605,000 over 2 years to
strengthen local capabilities at the
Madras Metropolitan Development Region for environmental
planning and management.

The agreement was signed in
July end by Hans-C Von Sponeck,
resident representative, UNDP, G N
Haldea, joint secretary (technical
cooperation), department of economic affairs, Union ministry of
finance, and L N Vijayaraghavan,
secretary, housing and urban development department, Tamil Nadu.

The development plans for the
Madras Metropolitan Development area comprising of the jurisdiction under the Municipal Corporation of Madras, S other municipalities, several nagar panchayats and village panchayats, are being
prepared by the Madras Metropolitan Development Authority B
(MMDA). Working groups will be I
created to identify priority issues, ,
strategies and action plans.

Under the project, the UNDP
will provide funds in the fields
of environmental management,
urban management, institutional
development and sustainable
cities programme adviser, besides
study tour and fellowship training
of MMDA officials. Assistance to
NGOs to carry out smallscale projects to tackle environmental problems in lowncome settlements is
also envisaged.

The MMDA will be assisted by
the United Nations Centre for
Housing and Shelter. Madras is the
only south Asian city to be included in the SCP along with 9 other
cities in Africa, Latin America and
Eastern Europe.