Mayor Nanda Jichkar talked about Nagpur city’s green contribution in an exclusive interview which was published by The New York Times
Sept 14: It is a proud moment for Nagpurians as The New York Times has acknowledged the work of Nagpur Municipal Corporation and Mayor Nanda Jichkar towards the work done to tackle the challenges of climate change. Recently the newspaper published an interview of Mayor Nanda Jichkar over the efforts taken to combat climate change and introducing sustainable means of developing energy.
The statement of other mayors and ministers were also published highlighting the actions they are taking to tackle the global problem.
Mayor Nanda Jichkar has represented Nagpur at a global platform at Mission Innovation, an initiative of 24 countries and European Union working to accelerate clean energy initiatives. Mayor Nanda Jichkar is a member of the Global Covenant of Mayors, which has recently partnered with Mission Innovation where she highlighted the innovative actions that have been initiated in the city.
Speaking about the innovative policies that NMC has developed in the private sector, Mayor said that Nagpur city has a history of successful broad-based public-private partnership programs. She also highlighted that NMC has recently replaced more than 110,000 conventional streetlights with programmed LED lights to increase efficiency with energy savings up to 40 percent and that this initiative is being funded by savings generated from reduced energy bills.
On asking how the government’s ‘Mission Innovation’ of doubling R&D investments can be directed to advance transformative climate action in the cities, Mayor responded, “India is projected to add 404 million people to its urban population between 2014 and 2050. Hence, such rapid urbanization creates major stress – socially, politically, economically and environmentally. To meet these challenges, Nagpur has invested in becoming a smart city.”
She further informed NY Times that Nagpur is now number one smart city in India. With e-buses and metro trains that work 65 percent on solar energy, Nagpur is contributing in controlling the effects of the climate change. She also expressed her interest in seeing more R&D investments in clean energy and technologies that can make our city more sustainable.
In an effort to change the face of Nagpur for better and to push college students to do innovations, Mayor has introduced an Innovation Fiesta for young change makers named, Innovation Parv in August 2019. More than 20,000 students participated in this fiesta and presented their innovative ideas for development of the city. Being the only member from South Asian countries of The Global Covenant of Mayors, she has also been a part of various innovation based conferences that took place across the country
