mumbai

Updated: Jul 14, 2017 09:59 IST

In a first for the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to incorporate students’ ideas while framing its polices.

In a competition held by the BMC and think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the officials got new ideas for urban planning that can be used for the city’s benefit.

The winning entries includes ideas to make use of vacant housing for amenities, assessing the city’s bio-diversity index, a cultural policy for the city and focusing on local-area planning. Students were asked to pick topics from the recently released Development Plan (DP) 2034.

Sayali Udas Mankikar, a research fellow at the ORF, said the competition was organised to bridge the gap between policy-making and academia.

“The students reviewed exiting policies with real-time data. They interacted with civic officials to understand the ground reality. With this competition, we are opening doors for academia in urban planning.”

ORF had received 33 entries from students across 15 institutions. Berjis Driver, who won the first prize presented a research paper titled Transfer of Identity - Establishment of a Unification model for the open spaces of Mumbai. All seven winners will be felicitated on Friday.

A student of Lokmanya Tilak Institute of Architecture and Design Studies in Navi Mumbai, Driver pitched ideas to make open spaces accessible to all. He said, “I got this idea looking at the lack of open spaces in the city and the non-accessibility of the ones existing . Legislative guidelines are imminent to achieve this.”

An urban planner working with the DP the department said department is looking at ways to incorporate Driver’s ideas for the city’s final open spaces policy. An interim policy on open spaces is currently pending with the general body for approval.

DP to be discussed on Friday

After a delay, the BMC will start discussing the DP 2034 in its general body meeting on Friday. Officials said meetings have been scheduled on July 14 and 15 to discuss the DP. Yashwant Jadhav, Shiv Sena corporator and leader of the House, said they are hoping to pass the DP blueprint on Saturday. “If we don’t reach a consensus on Saturday, then the plan will be discussed on Monday,” Jadhav said. The last day for BMC to submit the DP to the state is July 18.