Ahmedabad: National and international delegates, students, urban planners and architects from across Asia will converge at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (Cept) University later this month, when the institute hosts India’s first international congress of the Asian Planning Schools Association (Apsa).
The Apsa congress, titled the ‘Future of Asian Cities’, will provide a platform for the exchange of ideas, sharing of experiences and the results of research studies, furthering networks, and exploring the opportunities of working together, to the institutes, professionals, academicians and students involved in the various sectors of planning and development.
The Apsa congresses are held every two years, in different Asian countries. The first such event was organised in Tokyo, Japan in 1991, and the last three, at Hanoi in Vietnam (2003), Penang in Malaysia (2005) and Colombo in Sri Lanka (2007). “This is the 10th Apsa congress, being held in India for the first time,” said Utpal Sharma, dean of the faculty of planning and public policy at Cept University. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Apsa congress, which will be held from November 24 to 26.
Minister for urban development, Jaipal Reddy will attend the second day of the event.
The three-day event will see participation from around 800 delegates from 28 countries, who will discuss problems related to planning in Asian cities and debate possible solutions. The APSA congress will cover six themes — ‘Towards an Asian approach to planning for millennium development’, ‘Cities for people’, ‘Creating better cities in the 21st century’, ‘Sustainability of Asian cities’, ‘Economic boom and crisis: Impact on Asian cities’ and ‘Planning education in changing times and infrastructure services’.
“Municipal commissioner of Ahmedabad, IP Gautam will discuss the Bus Rapid Transit System and Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission on the third day of the congress,” Sharma said.
Source: DnaIndia
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