Aluva municipality signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a
UK-based engineering and design firm with regard to the country’s
‘Future Cities’ project on Monday evening. The MoU was signed among
Christ Birdsong, Asia Pacific CEO, Atkins, a British engineering and
design group, M T Jacob, Chairman, Aluva Municipality and A S Anuja,
Municipal Secretary.
The MoU will be a vision document for the
next 50 years for the municipality, officials said. The masterplan will
be developed by the Atkins group, which has handled key engineering
projects internationally, including Kochi’s own Lulu mall.
The masterplan will focus more on health and environment aspects of the municipality.
A
discussion on this regard was held between Cyril Pickles, Minister for
Metro Development, UK and officials of the Aluva Municipality last June.
“The
MoU is for five years. The municipality will not have to bear any
financial burden, but will share details for the preparation of the
masterplan,” he said.
Bharat Bhushan, United Kingdom’s Deputy High
Commissioner to Chennai said that the project will be big boost for the
municipality.
“The ‘Future Cities Project’ is envisioned to
enable cities worldwide to combat climate change, to implement proactive
strategies against floods and to intiate action on various other
development initiatives. It will be funded by the UK government’s
Department for International Development (DFID),” said Bharat while
addressing media on Sunday morning. He said that usually large cities
are considered for the project, but this time UK is considering Aluva,
which is at the end of a large developing city like Kochi.
We are looking forward to work with the municipality, said Bharat.
On
the sidelines of the function in which the MoU was signed, Prince
Charles watched the screening of films on Metro rail, Nedumbassery
airport and the river Periyar.
