E-Paper
Water for Varanasi: Ivy league varsities tie up with IIT-KGP for city project
A geo-hydrological exploratory study will be carried out in Varanasi and Ganga’s role in the past and present of the ancient city will be factored in to draw a roadmap to the future
Kolkata Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) has joined joined hands with three US Ivy League institutes - Harvard, Columbia and Pennsylvania, for a water urbanism project at Varanasi to conduct an interdisciplinary study of infrastructure, healthcare and hydrology of the region.
According to an IIT-KGP release, a 50-member team of students, research scholars and academicians from the three universities will be collaborating with the students here between January 5 to January 14 this year.Workshops will also be organised under the auspices of Varanasi Nigam and a number of other organisations.
The three US based varsities are the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Harvard University.
Water urbanism is a geo-hydrological exploratory study of Varanasi, where the river Ganga is integrated with the past and present of the ancient city and key to the growth of the city over the ages.
“The collaboration will provide designed solutions to major grounded initiatives on the Ghats and allied water systems of the ancient kund landscape systems of the city. It will help position a 3,000 year legacy of sustainable habitat recovery that have grown on such systems,” said Prof Joy Sen, head, department of architecture and regional planning at IIT Kharagpur.
“It will also identify the spots of retrofitting and turning around that is needed as of now to recover pedestrianisation, demarcate limited vehicular infills and improve the greenery of the city,” he added.
