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Chandigarh bags 3 awards in India Cycles4Change Challenge
The City Beautiful clinched the award of excellence for being forerunner in creating healthy streets in Indian cities
Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL) won three awards as part of the “India Cycles4Change Challenge”, organised to inspire and support Indian cities to implement quick cycling-friendly initiatives in response to Covid-19.
An initiative of the Smart Cities Mission of the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs, the challenge was launched on June 25, 2020, and Chandigarh was among the top 11 cities during Stage 1 announced in July 2021.
On Saturday, the City Beautiful bagged the award of excellence for being forerunner in creating healthy streets in Indian cities. It also secured the first place in maximum number of kilometres for walking, cycling and running combined; and third place in maximum number of kilometres walking.
As many as 95 cities from across the country were part of the challenge in Stage 1 and Stage 2 involved scaling up the city efforts to enhance bicycling infrastructure. The challenge activity of the city involved low-cost interventions like pop-up cycle lanes and traffic-calmed measures, public bicycle sharing that increase the availability of cycles to citizens and promote the usage of cycling through public events and outreach.
Kunal Kumar, joint secretary and mission director, Smart Cities Mission; and Aswathy Dilip, managing director, ITDP India, presented the awards during the National Workshop Series on Streets and Public Spaces, organised by Smart Cities Mission and Pimpri Chinchwad Smart City, on Saturday.
“Kishan Pal, superintending engineer, horticulture, won the first place in maximum number of kilometres for walking during Quarter 2 of Freedom2WalkCycleRun Challenge 2023. Aiming towards behavioural change and stepping forth to a healthier lifestyle, the Freedom2Cycle, Walk, Run campaign was organised by CSCL. Our leaders explored the city through cyclists’ and pedestrians’ eyes, which helped in developing strategic and contextual solutions to issues which they observed during the activity routes in the city. It’s a proud moment for CSCL to receive three awards,” said Anindita Mitra, chief executive officer, CSCL.
