In a noteworthy move, the Mayor of Pune, Smt. Mukta Tilak, endorsed the Global Street Design Guidelines (GSDG) making Pune the first Indian city to do so. GSDG was launched by The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) and the Global Designing Cities Initiative as globally accessible, implement tested and life-saving street design guide. Pune now joins the ranks of cities like London, Buenos Aires, Sydney and Toronto who have endorsed the guide as a new standard for transforming streets to prioritize safety and sustainability.
As a city that recently developed Urban Street Design Guidelines of its own, this comes as yet another important step in ensuring that appropriate design elements are implemented to create better streets for people and support transportation objectives. It is an equally great achievement for Global Designing Cities Initiative as it intends to achieve a unified global voice by pushing for local solutions (know more about it here- https://nacto.org/global-street-design-guide-gsdg/)
Parisar, along with many other NGOs was closely involved in pushing for the development and adoption of the stated Urban Street Design Guidelines. All these groups are persistent in their endeavours to ensure that a proper process is worked out that will ensure the total implementation of these guidelines. Parisar also played a crucial role in making a case for the Global Street Design Guideline in Pune. Ranjit Gadgil, Programme Director at Parisar, followed up with the city authorities for this endorsement. He believes that Pune is committed to creating and strengthening the Urban Design facility in the city and the NACTO guide will only help in taking this to a new level.
To access the letter by Mayor of Pune, see https://globaldesigningcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Letter-from-Hon.-Mayor-…pdf