Gurgaon city dialogue on Action for Clean Air in Gurgaon: Our City. We Care

The collaborative workshop on Action for Clean Air in Gurgaon: Our City. We Care was a joint initiative of the Artemis Hospital, gurgaon and the New Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment. The city dialogue held on December 23, 2014 in Main Auditorium of Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon, and was attended by nearly 50 participants.

This collaborative workshop brought together the key target groups including medical professionals, policy makers, experts, civil society groups and industry representatives who are involved with city governance, air pollution and transportation policies. This forum captured the learning from initiatives adopted in Gurgaon and share experiences from Delhi and other cities to evolve strategies for future policy action.

The objective was to find ways to address critical issues of common concerns and look at a range of strategies for air quality management; public health protection; and the challenges of public transport and congestion reduction strategies.

CSE released its findings and assessment of Rapid Perception Survey and the discussion was continued by selected citizen stakeholders of Gurgaon who gave their take on mobility conditions and required strategies for the city on this occasion. The survey was conducted to understand people’s perception of air pollution and mobility problems in the city. This was addressed by Devlina Chakravarty, CEO, Artemis Hospital, Himanshu Garg, Head Respiratory & Sleep Medicine, Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon, T.L. Satya Prakash, Deputy Commissioner, Municipal Commissioner, Gurgoan, Bhure Lal, Chairman, Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, Prabhat Agarwal, Founder, India Cycle Service, and Sanya Seth, JAGORI

 This inter-city dialogue on our common challenges and solutions across cities is part of an experience sharing dialogue series initiated by clean air and mobility programme of CSE to build up a nation-wide debate on the grass root challenges of mobility and public health crisis in our cities.

The amazing range and depth of discussions and debate on air quality and mobility challenges during the dialogue will continue to enrich our knowledge and strengthen our action in Gurgaon. This is possible because of the valuable and insightful vision shared by our deeply revered panel members who are also reputed experts in their fields and representative of the different stakeholder communities including participants from civil society, academia, press, students as so on.

The Gurgaon dialogue forum discussed and debated on issues related to air quality benefits of first generation reforms, emerging air quality and health challenges, issues related to sub-utilisation of public transport systems including the tramways in the city and poor facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users. The expert panel recommended that parking norms should be tightened across the city and the city must shift focus from car centric development towards providing mobility choices to majority of people who either walks, cycle, or take public transport.

For details, contact:

Priyanka Chandola
Right To Clean Air Campaign
Centre for Science and Environment
Tel: +91 – 9810414938 (Mobile)
Email: priyanka@cseindia.org