Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 5

The Department of Urban Planning at Lovely Professional University (LPU) came forward with an exclusively instructive session on World Environment Day-2021. This session was titled as “Planning of Housing Environments and Infrastructure in Xenodochial Cities”. Under this, the topic covered was ‘Post-Pandemic Cities and Sustainable Development’.

For this virtual programme, eminent resource persons included Regional Director, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Jai Shiv Sharma; Assistant Director, Military Engineering Services, Rajat Kothari; Chairman, Indian Green Building Council (Chandigarh Chapter), Jit Kumar Gupta; urban planner, Urban Development and Housing Department (Arunachal Pradesh) Abin Tok; urban planner, Ladakh Ecological Development Group, Stanzin Odrai; among others.

The speakers said the world should have sure access to real-time information that helps cities survive a crisis; urban planners should work to reduce the impact of a crisis on disadvantaged communities; and, public services should be re-designed to cope with sudden and unwanted surges like present pandemic. They talked prominently in favour of good spaces, parks, pollution less transportation, renewable energy, green, clean, hygienic environment with all basic facilities and more. They emphasised to rethink mainly about energy, mobility, environment and innovative policy making about this all.

World Environment Day theme held this year is ‘Reimagine: Recreate: Restore’, and its focal point is ecosystem restoration. It means preventing, halting and reversing the damage— to go from exploiting nature to healing it.

Notably, the world witnessed a severe outbreak of the Covid-pandemic in the last month of 2019. Since then the governments are working on reducing the crushing impacts. Urban planners have calculated that the cities across the world have suddenly moved from a friendly environment to a strange environment. All of them are now planning to shape cities in such ways that they fight diseases better than before. The variety and imagination of responses to this crisis has given urban planners a huge source of insight. LPU student of architecture and design, Sreevalli Maheshwaram, also won ‘Urban Eclectic: Design-based Urban Planning Competition’ for her participation with creative poster.