ram . Au ppu rov ilu ille V . C ry u r Tindivanam d e d h a c l u Vanur o d r e u P Viluppuram Auroville Puducherry Panruti S Cuddalore u s n ta la in P ab al le Region SUSTAINABLE REGIONAL PLANNING FRAMEWORK for puducherry, viluppuram, auroville & cuddalore Appendix A Outreach Initiatives February 2012 CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction 5 2.0 Objective of the workshops 12 3.0 Workshop themes 13 4.0 Workshop Schedule and Summary 14 5.0 Issues and recommendations 32 6.0 Public sector participation 48 7.0 Media Outreach 50 1.0 Introduction Puducherry and the adjoining Tamil Nadu region are very closely connected to each other through historical links, culture, religion, language, tourism, trade/business, population, transportation, climate and natural resources such as water bodies, ecosystems, coastline. This tightly knit connection calls for a Regional Plan that would benefit this region not just in the urban areas but also in the adjoining rural areas. With funding assistance from ADEME and endorsement from the Government of Puducherry, INTACH Pondicherry and PondyCAN have embarked upon an initiative to develop a Model Inter-State Sustainable Regional Plan that would help realize the full potential of the region in terms of: sustainable and balanced socio-economic growth, land use development patterns, multimodal connectivity, energy consumption, infrastructure provision and protection of natural resources. Keeping this over-arching goal in mind, the Regional Planning Framework includes the following ‘themes’ that will be addressed in this initial phase- Land Use, Transportation, Energy, and Water. Referred to as the ‘Puducherry – Viluppuram – Auroville- Cuddalore’ (PVAC), the region has been defined as the area generally bounded by the Kaluvelly Tank (Tindivanam taluk of Viluppuram District) on the north, Coromandel Coast on the east, and Perumal Lake (Kurinjipadi taluk of Cuddalore District) on the south. On the west, the boundary incorporates the Puducherry Urban Area and areas within the Viluppuram taluk of Viluppuram District that are a part of the 40 km radius drawn from the centre of Puducherry. Puducherry, Cuddalore, Viluppuram, and Auroville are the four major towns within this delineated regional boundary that encompasses a total area of 2,540 square kilometres. This report is an account of the public and stakeholder workshops undertaken as part of the preparation of the sustainable regional planning framework for Puducherry, Viluppuram, Auroville & Cuddalore. SUSTAINABLE REGIONAL PLANNING FRAMEWORK 5 for puducherry, viluppuram, auroville & cuddalore Minutes Of The Regional Planning Meet At French Consulate 8th October 2010 Background The Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi wrote to the Govt of Pondicherry in Sep1986 and June 2005 to constitute a working group to undertake the preparation of Interstate Regional Plan for the Union Territory of Pondicherry and the surrounding areas including Auroville. Several rounds of meetings were held with the Lt Governor and Chief Minister of Puducherry, Govt officials from New Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to discuss about Regional Planning. The Ministry of Urban Development has now directed all the States to take up Regional Planning which should be the basis for Town Planning. ADEME, a French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management has signed an MOU with the Ministry of Urban Development to support a few cities in India for projects on sustainable development and included Pondicherry as one of the cities after a discussing it with the Pondicherry Govt. PondyCAN, INTACH and representatives of Auroville have met with many key people both in Delhi and Tamilnadu to further this effort, starting with the Minister of Urban Delvelopment Shri Jayapal Reddy, Dr Kasturirangan, Member of Planning Commission, Mr. Mehta, Jt. Secretary MUD, GOI, Mr. Kshirsagar, Chief Planner, TCPO GOI, the Collectors of Villupuram and Cuddalore, Mrs. Susan Mathews, Vice Chairman CMDA, Chennai and others in the TN administration. To take the Regional Planning forward a meeting was convened to discuss the formation of the Advisory Board and the Working Group for Interstate Regional Planning and the Ademe project. Summary of the meeting: Members present: The Consul General of France Mr Pierre Fournier, Chief Town Planner Mr G. Durairaj & JTP Mr V. Bhuvaneshwaran (Town & Country Planning Dept), Ashok Panda (INTACH), Prashant Hedao (representing Auroville Foundation), Sunaina Mandeen and Probir Banerjee (PondyCAN) Summary: The Consul General Mr Pierre Fournier welcomed the gathering. Mr Durairaj, Chief Town Planner, explained how through Regional Planning the whole area could be benefitted especially the villages who are now keen on “Development”. The main points to be discussed are: • The formation of an Advisory board, • The Working group and 3) the ADEME project. Ashok Panda gave an introduction of ADEME and also gave a broad outline of the project: • ADEME is the French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management. It is a public body under the joint supervision of the French Ministries for Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development. It acts as the State’s tool to generalise the best practises SUSTAINABLE REGIONAL PLANNING FRAMEWORK 6 for puducherry, viluppuram, auroville & cuddalore designed to protect the environment and energy saving.ADEME had earlier funded the Asia Urbs Project under a tripartite agreement between Pondicherry, Urbino (Italy) and Villeneuve-sur-Lot (France) for urban environment management. • The French Govt has signed an MOU with the Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi to support a few cities in India for projects on sustainable development. Pondicherry has been selected as one of the cities. An MOU has been signed between ADEME and INTACH which will have 2 components- Regional Planning and Eco-district. French experts will be also involved in developing these projects. • Once the Advisory board and Working group is finalised we need to engage a consultant for the project. Probir gave a brief history leading to this project. The initiative was taken up by PondyCAN and INTACH in collaboration with TCP Dept, Pondicherry. It took shape only after the intervention of Dr. Harjit Singh Anand former Member Secretary of the NCR board. Some of the important events were mentioned: • Sept 1986 – Letter from Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) to Chief Secretary, Pondicherry to take up Interstate Regional Planning. • 21st Dec 2004 – Reminder letter from MoUD for the formation of Working Group for Regional planning. • 15th May 2008- Consultation-meet in Auroville “Water management through Integrated Planning and Regional Collaboration”. • 25th July 2008 – Meeting held at the Chennai Secretariat with the Secretaries. • 26th July 2008 – Meet on “Preparation of Regional Plan” held at the Secretariat. • 4th Oct 2008 – Presentation to His Excellency the Lt Governor of Pondicherry Shri Govind Singh Gurjar • 5th Oct 2008 – Presentation to Chief Minister in his chamber. LAD Minister, Chief Secretary, other Secretaries and Heads of Govt departments were also present. • Feb 2009 – “Sustainable Regions Collaborative Planning” a participatory workshop held in Auroville which was inaugurated by the Lt Governor of Pondicherry • 24th July 2009 – Meeting held in the chamber of Chief Minister, Pondicherry regarding preparation of Interstate Regional Plan • 31st Aug 2009 – Letter from Govt of Pondicherry to Prof KT Ravindran requesting him to prepare a concept plan for the Interstate Regional Plan. • 11th Feb 2010 – Brainstorming session organised by TCPO, New Delhi for the 5 southern states in Auroville on Regional Planning inaugurated by the Chief Minister. SUSTAINABLE REGIONAL PLANNING FRAMEWORK 7 for puducherry, viluppuram, auroville & cuddalore • Prashant talked about the successful work done by Auroville towards sustainable development- water conservation and afforestation programs. Regarding GIS based system of hardware/ software for Planning he said: • ISRO had setup NRIS Pondicherry Node database in early-2003 at the Directorate of Information Technology, Planning & Research Department, Pondicherry under the then Chairmanship of Dr K Kasturirangan. Data is available till 2003. • Mr. P.G. Diwakar, Scientist & Assoc. Director at ISRO Headquarters (Bangalore) who was personally involved in setting up the database in 2003 in Pondicherry has agreed to work with Govt of Pondicherry and Auroville to setup this updated seamless database for the region. Mr. Ramaswamy, Secretary Auroville Foundation has already written to Dr. Radhakrishnan (Chairman ISRO) requesting him to initiate a collaboration between ISRO and Auroville for data sharing and its use in planning. Pondicherry is yet to finalise the location for setting up this centre. The following names were proposed for the Advisory board: New Delhi: 1. Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi 2. Dr K Kasturirangan, Member, Planning Commission, 3. Jt. Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi 4. Mr Kshirsagar, Chief Planner, Town and Country Planning Organisation, New Delhi 5. Prof K.T. Ravindran (H.O.D Dept of Urban Design, School for Planning and Architecture) Tamil Nadu: 1. Secretary, Urban Development, Chennai 2. Chief Planner, Town and Country Planning, Chennai Puducherry: 1. Consul General of France, Pondicherry 2. Secretary, Urban Development, Puducherry 3. Chief Town Planner, Puducherry4.Collector, Puducherry 4. Representative of ADEME Auroville: 1. Secretary, Auroville Foundation