Our Correspondent
Kohima, Jan. 17 (EMN): Kohima is among the top 10 cities under Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge (NNC), a three-year phased initiative aimed at making public spaces friendlier for young children in India.
The Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), on Monday announced the 10 winning cities in pilot stage-1, selected from 63 cities across the country by a jury of experts, including representative from MoHUA.
The top cities selected under NNC are Bengaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Indore, Jabalpur, Kakinada, Kochi, Kohima, Rourkela, Vadodara, and Warangal.
Kohima was selected for its pilot-stage project of transforming a roadside garbage dump into a green, community-funded micropark and adapting a schoolyard into multipurpose public space for young children and caregivers.
The state capital also made it to top 11 cities under Streets4People challenge, initiated to create pedestrian-friendly streets. The 11 awardees are: Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Kochi, Kohima, Nagpur, Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune, Udaipur, Ujjain and Vijayawada.
According to the Smart Cities Mission, Kohima was recognised under Streets4People challenge for the Kohima Smart City Development Limited’s (KSCDL) work from parking to parks.
“Kohima reached out to their citizens to tackle their greatest challenge - parking! They took bold steps in transforming parking spaces into vibrant community spaces with curbside seating and planters,” it was informed.
The selected cities will move to another phase of engagements and will receive technical assistance to scale up interventions over the next two years.
The KSCDL also took to Twitter to announce that Kohima is the only city to make it in all top selection of all challenges.
Meanwhile, four cities – Imphal, Karnal, Silvassa and Vadodara -- received jury’s special mention.