Housing project for Ahmedabad’s poor gets rich praise in Brazil

Rapidly developing Ahmedabad city left delegates at the fifth World Urban Forum on the theme, 'The Right to The City: Bridging the Urban Divide' at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil highly impressed.

A delegation of 11 Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) staff, including city mayor Kanaji Thakore, attended the conference to present and discuss different urban development projects.

The AMC delegation showcased the work in slum networking project, housing for urban poor and urban transport -- Bus Rapid Transit System. Giving details of the four-day event in Rio, BJP leader in the AMC Dr Kamlesh Patel who was at the forum said, AMC's housing for urban poor project stole the show.

"Delegates from Jordan said that they would be obliged if the AMC could work as a nodal agency to help them come up with a similarly effective project on housing for urban poor in their country. Apart from representatives from Jordan, other participants were also impressed by the rapid development of Ahmedabad city," said Dr Patel.

He said, even Indian delegates which included cabinet minister for urban development Subroto Roy, was very happy to see Ahmedabad and Gujarat's development. 

At the forum, there were dialogues on five topics including, Taking Forward the Right to the City, Bridging the Urban Divide: Inclusive Cities, Adequate Access to Shelter and Basic Social Services, Cultural Diversities in Cities; Governance and Participation and Sustainable Urbanisation: Cities in a Changing Climate.

Of the total six dialogues, Ahmedabad made a presentation in four categories.