2-Jul-2021: Commerce Ministry’s Logistics Division unveils plans for ‘Freight Smart Cities’
With growing urbanisation, requirements of rapid economic growth including e-commerce and associated first and last mile freight movements; increasing congestion, noise and sound pollution in the Indian cities is a menace affecting both public health and local economies. The Logistics Division under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has decided to work in a planned manner to improve the city freight movement.
This is all the more relevant as the demand for urban freight is expected to grow by 140 per cent over the next 10 years. Final-mile freight movement in Indian cities is currently responsible for 50 per cent of total logistics costs in India’s growing e-commerce supply chains. Improving city logistics would also enable efficient freight movement and bring down the logistics costs boosting all sectors of the economy.
The need for focus on city logistics was first discussed with States/UTs during the first National Conference of States on Logistics on 19th January, 2021. Taking this forward, the Logistics Division has been engaged with subject experts and technical organizations to devise a roadmap for improvement in freight movement in the Indian cities. The roadmap envisions the concept of ‘Freight Smart Cities’ to improve the efficiency of urban freight and create an opportunity for reduction in the logistics costs.
During the consultative meeting chaired by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Shri Hardeep Singh Puri on freight smart cities held on 02 July 2021, the logical next step was taken where issues were discussed with technical details, and specific examples of cities that have progressed in this area were shared.
On this occasion, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri launched the website on ‘Freight Smart Cities’ and also released a handbook outlining 14 measures that can be taken to improve urban freight. Shri Puri appreciated the extensive participation of nearly 300 stakeholders. He stated that India is undergoing robust, vibrant and autonomous urbanisation. A shift from regulatory to a more organic approach making use of the enabling technologies is required to be adopted by the policy makers and city planners taking into account the aspirations of citizens and plan for their requirements. He urged the State Governments to identify ten cities, to begin with, to be developed as Freight Smart Cities and also to set up institutional mechanism for the same involving the Government as well as Private stakeholders like Logistics services providers, users and citizens. He also asked the States/City Governments to focus on the quick-wins like developing peri-urban freight centres, night-time deliveries, developing truck routes, using Intelligent Transportation Systems & modern technologies, Promoting electrification of urban freight , Parcel delivery terminals etc.
Representatives from NITI Aayog, MoHUA, MoRTH, Railways , State Govts and City level urban bodies, ADB as well as the technical Institutes like RMI, SPA(Delhi) and SPA (Bhopal), CEPT, GIZ addressed the participants. States and cities like Gujarat, Panjim, Hyderabad, Shimla and Amravati presented their work related to improving city freight logistics. These cases and other good practices would help to accelerate the action.
“The 14 measures presented in the handbook represent high-leverage areas for cities to improve their economic competitiveness and reduce congestion and pollution. Several of these measures are low-cost, low effort initiatives that can be quickly taken up by working with the related public and private stakeholders.” said Sh. Pawan Agarwal, Special Secretary, Logistics Division in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Under the Freight Smart Cities initiative, city-level logistics committees would be formed. These committees would have related government departments and agencies at the local level, state and from the reacted central ministries and agencies. These would also include private sector from the logistics services and also users of logistics services. These committees would co-create City Logistics Plans to implement performance improvement measures locally.
On the Freight smart city initiatives, the Logistics Division is working closely with GIZ (Germany) under Indo-German Development Cooperation, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and RMI India. A challenge is expected to be announced to encourage the participation of cities in this initiative.
From the ten cities to be identified on immediate basis, it is planned to expand the list to 75 cities in the next phase before scaling up throughout the country including all state capitals and cities that have more than one million population. The list of cities to be taken up would however be finalised in consultation with the State governments.
25-Feb-2021: City Innovation Exchange (CiX) Launched for Fostering Innovation in Urban Ecosystem
The City Innovation Exchange (CiX) platform was launched by Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs at an online event here today. Shri Anil Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Shri Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director, Smart Cities Mission, CEOs of Smart Cities and other officers of the Central and State Governments were also present at the event.
The platform will be a significant addition to the growing innovation ecosystem of India and focuses on fostering innovative practices in cities. CiX, through an ‘open innovation’ process, engages with innovators to design-test-deliver on solutions to pressing urban challenges. This initiative is among the ongoing efforts of the Government to realise Prime Minister’s vision of New and AtmaNirbhar Bharat, by making cities more self-reliant and enabled to meet the needs of and provide services to their citizens.
Designed on the philosophy of ‘everyone is an innovator’, the platform will bring together Citizen Organisations-Academia- Businesses- Government to co-create for the future of Urban India in a transparent and sustainable manner. The Smart Cities Mission will partner and effectively collaborate with Startup India, Atal Innovation Mission, AGNIi and other initiatives in the Indian Innovation ecosystem.
City Innovation Exchange (CiX)
The City Innovation Exchange (CiX) will connect cities to innovators across the national ecosystem to design innovative solutions for their pressing challenges. The platform will ease the discovery, design& validation of solutions through a robust, transparent and user centric process that will reduce barriers for innovators and cities to discover fitting solutions.
Built on the concept of ‘open innovation’, the platform will help in the flow of ideas ‘outside in and inside out’, enhancing the skills and capacity required to deliver smart urban governance. Through interaction with the Academia and Businesses/Startups, the platform will benefit cities in the transfer of ideas from ‘labs’ to real environment. Similarly, by helping urban governments interact with citizens, the platform will ensure adoption of tested solutions that will be impactful and sustainable.
The platform in due time will help our cities in adopting solutions that will enhance the quality of life for its residents and significantly improve the Ease of Doing Business.
The Platform has more than 400 start-ups, 100 smart cities, more than 150 challenges statements and over 215 solutions at the time of launch.
1-Jan-2021: PM lays foundation stone of Light House projects (LHPs) across six states
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Light House projects (LHPs) under Global Housing Technology Challenge (GHTC)- at six sites across six States, today through video conference. He announced the winners under Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators - India (ASHA-India) and gave away annual awards for excellence in implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) Mission. He also released a certification course on innovative construction technologies named NAVARITIH (New, Affordable, Validated, Research Innovation Technologies for Indian Housing). Union Minister Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said today is the day to move forward with new energy, to prove new resolutions and today the country is getting new technology to build houses for the poor, middle class. He said the houses are called light house projects in technical language but these 6 projects are really like lighthouses showing a new direction to the housing sector in the country.
The Prime Minister cited these light house projects as an example of the approach of the present Government. He said at one time housing schemes were not as much as the priority of the central government and did not go into the nuances and quality of home construction. Today, the country has chosen a different approach, adopting a different route and a better technology, to complete the projects faster. He stressed on the importance for the Government ministries not to have large and sluggish structures, but to be fit like startups. He expressed happiness on the active participation of more than 50 Innovative Construction Companies from around the world. He said this global challenge has given us a scope to innovate and incubate with new technology.
The Prime Minister said in the next phase of the same process, the work of 6 light house projects at different sites is starting from today. These light house projects will be made up of modern technology and innovative processes and reduce the construction time and make a more resilient, affordable and comfortable house for the poor. He further explained that these light houses have innovations in construction technology. For example the project in Indore will not have brick and mortar walls, instead they will use the prefabricated Sandwich Panel system. The light houses in Rajkot will be built using French technology and have monolithic concrete construction technology using tunnel and the house will be more capable of withstanding disasters. In Chennai, US and Finland technologies will use the Precast Concrete system, which will construct the house faster and cheaper. In Ranchi houses will be built using Germany's 3D construction system. Each room will be made separately and then the entire structure will be added in the same way as Lego Blocks toys. He said Houses are being built in Agartala with the steel frames using New Zealand's technology which can withstand major earthquake risk. Canada's technology is being used in Lucknow, which will not require plaster and paint and will use the entire walls already prepared to build houses faster. He further said that thousands of houses will be built in 12 months at every location which will act as incubation centers through which our planners, architects, engineers and students will be able to learn and experiment with new technology. He announced that along with this, a certificate course will be started to upgrade the skills related to new technology to the people in the construction sector, so that the people can get the best technology and material in the world in house construction.
The Prime Minister remarked that the ASHA-India program is being run to promote research and startups related to modern housing technology within the country. Through this, new and affordable technology for building 21st century houses will be developed in India itself. He said Five best techniques have also been selected under this campaign. He said that the biggest dream of poor or middle class people living in the city is owning their house. But over the years, people were losing their trust in their house. He said even after earning the trust, the demand has gone down due to high prices. People have lost trust whether they would have legal standing in case of any issue. High interest rates of the bank and the difficulties in getting loans, have further dampened the interest on owning a house. He expressed satisfaction on the efforts taken in the last 6 years to restore the confidence of a common man that he too can have his own house. Under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, lakhs of houses have been built in a very short time in cities.
The Prime Minister said that in PM Awaas Yojna construction's focus is both on innovation and implementation as per the local needs and expectations of the home-owners. It is a complete package as every unit is equipped with electricity-water-gas connection. Transparency is being ensured through the technologies like geo-tagging and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to the beneficiaries.
Talking about the benefits for the middle classes, Shri Modi said they are getting rebates on home loan interest. A special fund of Rs 25 thousand crore, created for incomplete housing projects, will also help the middle class. Measures like RERA have brought back the trust of the home owners and given them confidence that they will not be cheated out of their hard earned money. There are 60 thousand projects registered under RERA and thousands of grievances have been redressed under the law.
The Prime Minister said that getting the key of a house is not just getting possession of a dwelling unit but it opens doors of dignity, confidence, safe future, new identity and expanding possibilities. All round work that is being done for ‘Housing for All’ is bringing positive change in the lives of crores of poor and middle class families.
The Prime Minister also mention new scheme that was taken up during the Corona pandemic i.e. Affordable Renting Housing Complex Schemes. Government is working with industry and other investors to provide housing with fair rents to the workers who come to work from various states to different states. Their housing conditions are often unhygienic and undignified. Effort is to provide them fair rent dwellings in the vicinity of their workplace. This is our responsibility that our worker friends should live with dignity, Shri Modi added.
The Prime Minister also recounted the measures taken recently to help the real estate sector. Measures like reduction of tax on cheap houses from 8 to 1 percent, GST reduction from 12 to 5 per cent, recognizing the sector as infrastructure for making it eligible for cheap loans have taken our ranking for construction permit from 185 to 27. Procedure for construction permissions have been taken online in more than 2000 towns, the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister also informed that more than 2 crore housing units have been constructed in rural India. Effort will be on to accelerate the speed of rural housing this year.
30-Dec-2020: PM to lay Foundation Stone of Light House Projects under GHTC-India on 1st January
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of Light House Projects (LHPs) under Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) at six sites across six States on 1st January 2021 at 11 AM via video conferencing. Prime Minister will also announce winners under Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators - India (ASHA-India) and give out annual awards for excellence in implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) Mission.
During the event, the Prime Minister will also release a certificate course on innovative construction technologies named NAVARITIH (New, Affordable, Validated, Research Innovation Technologies for Indian Housing) and a compendium of 54 innovative housing construction technologies identified through GHTC-India. Union MoS (I/C) for Housing and Urban Affairs, along with Chief Ministers of Tripura, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh will be present on the occasion.
Light House Projects
The Light House Projects (LHPs) showcase the best of new-age alternate global technologies, materials and processes in the construction sector for the first time in the country at such a large scale. They are being constructed under GHTC-India which envisages to provide an ecosystem for adoption of innovative technologies in the housing construction sector in a holistic manner. The LHPs are being constructed at Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh). They comprise about 1000 houses at each location along with allied infrastructure facilities. These projects will demonstrate and deliver ready to live houses at an expedited pace within twelve months, as compared to conventional brick and mortar construction, and will be more economical, sustainable, of high quality and durability.
These LHPs demonstrate a variety of technologies, including Prefabricated Sandwich Panel System in LHP at Indore, Monolithic Concrete Construction using Tunnel Formwork in LHP at Rajkot, Precast Concrete Construction System in LHP at Chennai, 3D Volumetric Precast Concrete Construction System in LHP at Ranchi, Structural Steel Frame with Light Gauge Steel Infill Panels in LHP at Agartala and PVC Stay In Place Formwork System in LHP at Lucknow. The LHPs will serve as live laboratories for facilitating transfer of technology to the field and its further replication. This includes planning, design, production of components, construction practices and testing for both faculty and students of IITs, NITs, other Engineering colleges, Planning and Architecture colleges, builders, professionals of private and public sectors and other stakeholders.
ASHA-India
Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators - India (ASHA-India) aims to promote domestic research and entrepreneurship by providing incubation and acceleration support to potential future technologies. Under ASHA-India initiative, five ASHA-India Centers have been set up for providing incubation and acceleration support. The potential technology winners under acceleration support will be announced by the Prime Minister. The technologies, processes and materials identified through this initiative will provide a major fillip to young creative minds, start-ups, innovators and entrepreneurs.
PMAY-U Mission
Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) Mission has been designed to achieve the vision of “Housing For All by 2022”. In order to recognize the outstanding contribution by States, UTs, Urban Local Bodies and beneficiaries, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has introduced annual awards for excellence in implementation of PMAY-Urban. The winners of PMAY(Urban) Awards-2019 will be felicitated during the event.
11-Feb-2019: “Light House Projects challenge” launched.
The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has instituted a challenge for States/ UTs to select six sites across the country for constructing the Lighthouse projects under GHTC-India. MoHUA encourages all States/ UTs to participate in this challenge proactively. The winning six States/ UTs that score the highest marks across the prescribed criteria will be awarded lighthouse projects. The States/ UTs will receive Central Assistance to construct these projects as per PMAY (U) guidelines. In addition to this, a Technology Innovation Grant (TIG) for the States/ UTs is provisioned to offset the impact of any additional cost implication due to the use of new technology and to absorb the issues related to economies of scale and other related factors. The selected sites for lighthouse projects will be used as an ‘open laboratory’ for live demonstration and will receive due attention from academia (Civil Engineering, Planning, Architecture), practitioners (Public/ Private), policy makers (Central/ State) and media apart from felicitation/ recognition in Grand Expo-cum-Conference.
The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has already launched a “Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC- India)”. The challenge has three components viz. i) Conduct of Grand Expo-cum-Conference, ii) Identifying Proven Demonstrable Technologies from across the globe and iii) Promoting Potential Technologies through the establishment of Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators- India (ASHA-I) for incubation and accelerator support. Out of the three, the second component intends to identify and pilot ‘Proven Demonstrable Technologies’ from around the world in actual housing projects in different parts of the country. The shortlisted global technology providers will be invited to plan and construct light house projects within the framework of PMAY (U) on pre-selected sites provided by States/UTs across six identified PMAY.
The last date for participation by the States/UTs is 20th February’19. The States / UTs may send their applications in the prescribed format at the earliest and latest by 20th February 2019.The Selected States/ UTs will enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MoU) with MoHUA to execute these Light house projects in their States/ UTs under GHTC-India.