Ludhiana is among 12 cities selected by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs for a ₹5-crore heat-resilience project aimed at reducing the impact of extreme heat through measures such as increased tree cover, shaded public spaces and cool-roof solutions.
Municipal corporation commissioner Ojasvi Alankar said the project would be funded by the ministry, while the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), New Delhi, has been appointed as the knowledge partner. Depinder Singh Kapur, head of the climate centre for cities at NIUA, said the project would focus on areas with high footfall, including public institutions such as schools, hospitals and government offices, as well as low-income neighbourhoods, to ensure that interventions benefit the largest number of people during peak summer months.
According to Kapur, the proposed measures include cool-roof coatings on schools, hospitals, government offices and other public buildings, besides interventions in low-income neighbourhoods. The other cities selected for the project are Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Jodhpur, Vadodara, Nashik, Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam, Gwalior, Dehradun and Guwahati.