Stakeholders push forward Urban LEDS in Thane
Introducing the “Promoting Low Emission Urban Development Strategies in Emerging Economy Countries” (Urban LEDS) project to stakeholders and seeking their feedback formed the base of the First Stakeholder Consultation meeting held on 13th February 2014 at Thane Municipal Corporation. The main agenda of the meeting was to gain inputs from the stakeholders to take forward the Urban LEDS project through the provision of expertise and experience along with suggestions for the pilot project.
The meeting was attended by eminent personalities of Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), some of them being, Mr. Aseem Gupta, Honorable Municipal Commissioner, Mr. Shyam Sundar Patil, Honorable Additional Municipal Commissioner and Mr. S. D. Pote , Deputy City Engineer, Electrical Department; along with the ICLEI South Asia team. The meeting began with a welcome address by Municipal Commissioner and Deputy City Engineer (Electrical) followed by a brief introduction of all the stakeholders, about ICLEI as an organization and the Urban LEDS project. This was followed by a presentation on Energy status and Emission inventory for Thane (city level as well as Corporation level activities) on the basis of data collected and analysis done so far.
Myriad agendas were discussed in this meeting, some of them being:
- Regarding Solar Water Heaters: Further strengthening the mandatory installation of solar water heaters through the identification of empanelled vendors, development of web based calculators for assessing the savings potential of solar water heaters which would be made accessible to the public via the TMC website and the increasing need to use Sequence hybrid system (integrating grid power and solar energy) to make solar water heating more effective and to overcome certain shortcomings such as luke warm water time lag in the supply of hot water once the tap is opened.
- Regarding Rain Water Harvesting: Developing standardized design guidelines for installing efficient rain water harvesting systems and to publish them on the TMC website so as to avoid different and ineffective RWH installations and defeating the whole purpose of it.
- Regarding Green buildings: Developing green building guidelines for TMC, encompassing the provisions of the different rating systems and the Energy Conservation Building Codes (ECBC) and organising training programmes for the same, introducing a “Greenie” building concept where the TMC is proposing green building guidelines to all residents and buildings/residences wherein all suggested actions will be given the “greenie” building citation along with a reduction in the property tax, building a “green mall” where eco-friendly goods can be purchased and pilot project for implementing green buildings in small and medium industrial association on a cluster based approach.
- Regarding Transportation and traffic: Training drivers of TMC by Petroleum conservation Research Association (PCRA) so as to improving efficiency of vehicles and reduce energy consumptions and developing a cycle track in the city on a pilot scale basis.
- Regarding Energy Efficiency: Establishing Solar City Cell and Energy Conservation Cell, installing water meters to measure the volume of water used by residential and commercial buildings, encouraging Associations of buildings and households to assess water pumping efficiency and promoting Energy Efficiency certification programmes.
The stakeholders came up with several other suggestions and ideas to make Thane Municipal Corporation a progressive Urban LEDS city. As per detailed discussions and critical analysis of potential highlighted projects and priority sectors, based on the draft GHG emissions inventory prepared by ICLEI South Asia, following pilot projects will be taken up by the Thane municipal corporation immediately in near future under the Urban LEDS programme:
- Replacement of conventional street lights with Energy Efficient LED street lights (through ESCO) with support from ICLEI South Asia.
- SME industrial cluster, energy audits and identification of potential of energy savings with support from ICLEI South Asia.
- Driver training programme on fuel efficient use and road safety with PCRA and support from ICLEI South Asia.
- Development of the green building policy for TMC which will be developed into the “Greenie” Housing scheme.
During the energy consumption and GHG emissions data analysis and validation session, the ICLEI South Asia team presented the basic analysis of the energy consumption data collected from different departments within Thane Municipal Corporation as well as from other relevant Government agencies for city level energy data. The pattern of consumption for various energy sources like electricity, kerosene, petrol and diesel was also discussed and the consumption trends were analysed. Discussions on data gaps were then followed by suggestions of potential data sources from stakeholders.
The meeting concluded with special thanks by Municipal commissioner to all the participants for active participation and it was emphasized that similar stakeholders meetings should be conducted under the project on a regular basis. ICLEI South Asia thanked all participants for their valuable contribution and indicated their willingness to work with the local community to take forward the Urban LEDS project.
For more information on Urban LEDS South Asia activities, visit:
