Concept Note on Gurgaon First A Unique Citizens’ Initiative.

Concept Note on Gurgaon FirstA Unique Citizens’ Initiative

Contents…

• The “Gurgaon First” Initiative• Our Events So far• Support Partners• Media Coverage• Join the Initiative!

Gurgaon First Initiative

• Gurgaon has seen rapid transformation in the last decade. It has become an important suburb and corporate hub of North India, a city of malls and plush residential complexes as well as a key inland/freight corridor. No wonder, it is called the Millennium City. However, its infrastructure and basic services do not have the standards befitting this name.

• Gurgaon First (GF) is an initiative for positive change for the city of Gurgaon. Through its strategic events, research papers and website (www.gurgaonfirst.org), this civil society movement aims to showcase progress, highlight issues and suggest solutions in an effort to improve both living and working experience in the city of Gurgaon. The tangible outcome from the workshops is brought out as “White Papers” which are circulated, put on our website and given to the authorities to act upon.

• We have so far concluded five business workshops on “Gurgaon as a Smart City”, “Finding Traffic Solutions for Gurgaon”, Revamping Gurgaon’s Electricity Sector”, “Promoting Green Buildings in Gurgaon” and “Waste Management in Gurgaon”.. The workshops have led to greater understanding of the issues at hand.

• In 2013, Gurgaon First will continue with its thrust on conferences and workshops. In addition, it will move into capacity enhancement of authorities, and events of strategic importance to Gurgaon. It will also strengthen its website with more news, views and information. Besides, it proposes to bring out Gurgaon’s Year Book-2013.

Gurgaon First InitiativeThe focus of Gurgaon First is three fold: 1. Improving city’s Infrastructure2. Encouraging Sustainable and Smart Solutions3. Facilitating Inclusive and Participative Growth We are striving to bring better solutions to the city by involving all the stakeholders,

the authorities, the RWAs, residents, other civil society bodies, corporates and NGOs of Gurgaon.

We aim to bring about the said changes by: - facilitating exchange of information and ideas- bringing in best practices, learnings and concepts from outside- helping authorities improve their capacity, insight and vision- bringing corporates closer to decision-makers, and;- encouraging and nudging the authorities for positive action.

Conference: Gurgaon as a Smart City (Sept 2012)Our inaugural conference “Gurgaon as a Smart City” held on September 12, 2012 was successful in bringing together all the key stakeholders of Gurgaon. The one-day conference focused on holistic development of Gurgaon. The key session topics were • Vision for Gurgaon • New Infrastructure Initiatives• Technologies for Future• Improving Electricity Scenario• Promoting Solar• Green Homes and Office Buildings

The objective of the conference was to discuss and deliberate on how could Gurgaon can move to the next level in terms of infrastructure, using resources more optimally, improving ministrative processes and functions efficiently and responding to emergency services. In all, 160 delegates attended the event. Several suggestions and solutions emerged from the conference, which were presented to key authorities in the form of “White Paper”. The White Paper as well as all the presentations are available on our website.. …

Workshop: Finding Traffic Solutions for Gurgaon (Nov 2012) Our next event was an “in focus” half-a-day workshop on “Finding Traffic Solutions for Gurgaon” on Nov 21.

Attended by 90 delegates, the workshop flagged several urgent issues to the authorities for action. Among other things, the workshop discussed and deliberated upon finding integrated and sustainable approaches to manage traffic and transportation problems of the city.

Some of these were seamless integration of various modes of transportation, high quality and reliable public transport system, need for adequate parking spaces to free up the roads, constructing cycling and walking tracks, building road safety structures such as foot over bridges, undertaking road safety measures and many more.

Dr Praveen Kumar (Administrator, HUDA) acknowledged and accepted several proposals by residents and experts as well as assured the house that work on some of the high priority projects would begin immediately. A Cell for Non Motorised Traffic was decided to be created during the workshop. Design changes in a new proposed key arterial road were also decided proposed to make it more pedestrian friendly.

Workshop: Making Gurgaon Safer for Women ( Jan 2013) Our first “thought leadership” workshop was organised in January 2013. It was on

“Making Gurgaon a Safer Place for Women” and had Dr Kiran Bedi as the guest of honour. Are the authorities including Police/Traffic Police really geared up? Do we have enough women cops and NGos in Gurgaon? What can ordinary residents do to make a difference? These are some of the questions that the gathering attempted to find answers to. Dr Bedi advocated creation of Citizen Police Control Room for parallel policing by involving the RWAs, senior citizens, women, schools and colleges and corporates. She also talked about involving private security guards in policing and re-starting Civil Defence movement though NSS and NCC cadets. She talked about crime prevention of collaborative action.

As a result of this workshop, a women helpline “Damini” has been launched by Redco, Haryana exclusively for Gurgaon. The help line no is 9266861111.

Workshop:Revamping Gurgaon’s Electricity Sector (Feb 2013)Gurgaon pays one of the highest rates of electricity in the country, yet its power suffers severely with quality and reliability issues. To be sure, the grid price of the electricity is hovering around Rs 6 per unit, and when mixed with the back-up DG Set power which costs Rs 12 per unit, electricity costs for both residential and industrial consumer are hitting the roof. Why can’t Gurgaon enjoy cheaper and more reliable power like Delhi? Why can’t atleast some areas of Gurgaon be given away to private operators under the franchisee mode. Besides, Gurgaon has been selected as a “solar city” by the centre but very little action has happened on this front. Also, Gurgaon has been left out of the Smart Grid pilot project initiative.

Such issues formed the basis of the workshop, “Revamping Gurgaon’s Electricity Sector” held in Palms, Sushant Lok–I, Gurgaon. The workshop had four distinct sessions. These were Key Issues and Priorities, Electricity Trading Possibilities, Smart Grids and Use of Technologies for Operational Turnaround, and Encouraging Solar.

Our Support Partners so far…

Media Coverage…

You can join the Initiative…

•Corporates can join Gurgaon First by becoming Corporate Members for a Year which entitles them to support our Initiative for all our events and workshops round the year as sponsors. Corporates can also support our individual events and workshops.

•Individuals, NGOs can volunteer for specific tasks and help us in achieving our mission.

Please feel free to reach out on to:

Gurgaon FirstOffice Phone: +91-124-4384669 E-mail: [email protected]