Gurugram City-Connect Forum from CII

Focusing on the commitment for sustainable and inclusive development of Haryana, CII in an inclusive interaction with Mr. T L Satyaprakash, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Gurugram announced the formation of a Gurugram  City-Connect Forum.

 Making an announcement, Mrs. Rumjhum Chatterjee, Chairperson of CII Northern Region said that the Gurugram City-Connect will be an industry led Forum, which will work like a Resource Centre, aimed at strengthening the capacity of city administration.  It would help pooling and making expertise, knowledge and resources available and take specific initiatives in collaboration with Gurugram Municipal Commission and other stakeholders.

 Interacting with members and prominent citizens of Gurugram, Mr. T L Satyaprakash said that Gurugram is a unique city in many ways.   It is a greenfield city, developed and grew over a period of 3 decades, but Municipal Corporation came only 6 years back.  Further, it has 75% private development.  This has brought its own challenges such as integration amongst stakeholders.

 Welcoming the formation of Gurugram City Connect Forum by CII, he said that it could help Municipal Corporation scale-up capacity in terms of planning, conceptualization and projectisation with the support of specialists from different fields.     With growing pressure, the biggest challenge is to sustain the attractiveness of the city and next 2-3 years are crucial.  He further added that Gurugram Administration’s approach is based upon rational expectations and forward signaling. Street Lighting, Road, Safety and Surveillance as part of resident’s security is Gurugram administration’s key focus this year. He also suggested greater involvement of corporates in city’s development and other resident friendly initiatives of the Government. Whilst administration will provide contextual knowledge, CII can provide expertise through its membership for better planning and implementation of projects / programmes which would enable Gurugram to emerge as a Millennium City.

 Earlier Mr. Ravichandar, Chairman & MD, Feedback Consultants shared the experiences of City-Connect Fora created in 5 other cities viz. Bangalore, Pune, Panjim, Trivandrum and Chennai.   He said City-Connect is a public private invitaitive (PPI) that brings expertise and individual’s energy on the table to help build capacity and support city administration.   Each City-Connect Forum, with buying-in from city government, decides on their own priorities and provides solutions to the issues.  The City-connect Forum, in its own way, has helped better planning and execution and now CII taking lead in catalyzing the formation of similar Forum in Gurugram is highly commendable and the need of the hour, he added.

 He pointed out that collaboration is the key to the success.  An agreement between Gurugram City-Connect Forum and City Government should be the heart of the concept. Together both can prioritize and focus on key interventions, needed.

 Corporate members and other stakeholders participating in the discussion, expressed their full support to the Initiative.    Mr Arun Bhatia, Chairman, CII Haryana State Council and MD UTC Climate Control & Security, India said that CII Haryana members are open to contribute their bit in supporting and strengthening public services in the state. He also touched upon creation of CSR fund pool by inviting companies from various industry sectors in a common platform/project.