Thiruvananthapuram recently made history by becoming the first Indian city to be conferred the high-prestige UN-Shanghai Global Award for Sustainable Development. Co-presentation, between UN Habitat and the Shanghai Municipality, an award to cities around the world, identifies excellence in sustainability, good governance, and innovation. It says much for the commitment to sustainable and inclusive urban futures of Thiruvananthapuram.
The awards ceremony was held in Alexandria, Egypt, and Thiruvananthapuram City Mayor Arya Rajendran and Rahul Sharma, CEO of Smart City Thiruvananthapuram, received the prestigious recognition. The competition was tough with many candidates from different cities of the world as it was evaluated comprehensively regarding the strategies, the special challenges, and impact-oriented sustainability work of each of the candidates. Five cities were celebrated this year, including Thiruvananthapuram, Agadir (Morocco), Melbourne (Australia), Doha (Qatar), and Iztapalapa (Mexico).
The innovative projects that characterize this quest for sustainable urbanization in Thiruvananthapuram aim not only at environmental quality and public infrastructures and community life but also at creating man-made landscapes. One such landscape is the Manaveeyam cultural street-an artistic hub that cultivates artistic expression and facilitates an exchange of cultures. Such a space reflects the dreams of the city regarding spaces that encourage public socializing and celebrate the arts towards strengthening community ties.
The city has done very good work in the carbon footprints with the coming of electric transport. A set of 115 electric buses and 100 e-autos for the unemployed youth are a huge leap towards cleaner public transportation, and 35 e-scooters were bought for municipal use. All of this reflects Thiruvananthapuram’s intent to create sustainable transport.
Another is the establishment of an Integrated Command & Control Center, which has changed the face of the urban management system. This high-tech facility provides real-time data, thereby enhancing the city’s operations and quickly responding to the challenges in the urban space, thus strengthening the resilience of the city as a whole. The investment by the city in smart roads signifies its commitment to safe, accessible, and modern infrastructure. These roads have ensured connectivity and are safe to walk through. For this, 17,000 KW of solar panels were installed and LED technology has been adopted by all streetlights. As many as 2,000 solar streetlights have been installed that reduce energy consumption also.
These are some of the city projects of urban resilience to fortify essential services for populations exposed to environmental hazards with regard to climate change effects. Collectively, all these transformative efforts epitomize the city’s commitment towards sustainable development and welfare, and it rightly deserved its international recognition.