It´s apleasure to inform you about an exciting event taking place: From 2^ndto 4^thof November we, the TUEWAS Working Group Transport & Environment together with TUMI will undertake a Hackathon in Nagpur at the Urban Mobility India Conference(UMI).

Urban Mobility India Conference and Expo

The UMI 2018 is to be held at Nagpur under the aegis of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs(MoHUA). This year’s theme is Green Urban Mobility. GIZ SMART-SUT project is supporting the MoHUA in organising the UMI 2018. This presents a unique opportunity for TUMI, TUEWAS and GIZ to create additional value to support the ongoing discourse on sustainable urban mobility.

Background – Public Transport in Nagpur

Like most growing cities in India but also the ASEAN region, Nagpur faces the problem of growing dependence on private vehicles. Currently, the private bus network, that is owned by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and run by a private operator, is the only formal public transport system in the city. The Nagpur Metro, overseen by the Maha Metro Corp is currently under construction. There are informal shared auto rickshaws being used along with private auto rickshaws and private vehicles. However, the challenge of first and last mile connectivity remains!
The Hackathon, which is going to be held at the UMI venue in parallel to the conference aims at developing innovative solutions for ‘First and Last Mile Connectivity in Nagpur’ and at triggering an implementation based improvement of the local transport situation.

A New Dimension to the Discourse

The Hackathon is an opportunity to incorporate unconventional stakeholders in urban transport, where participants for a duration of 48 hours will ideate and elaborate innovative solutions to tackle the described challenge. The event will provide a platform for local IT specialists to collaborate with planners, transport engineers and architects to develop solutions to the pressing challenges of urban transport in the city.
A new perspective for solutions which are technologically advanced while contextually rooted will be demonstrated through the Hackathon.

After the Hackathon – Next Steps

The metro operator of Nagpur Maha Metro and Nagpur Municipal Corporationhave been involved in planning and designing the Hackathon from Day 1. Therefore, an ownership of the institutions for the results of the Hackathon is given. Partner cities of SMART SUT as well as other Indian cities will participate in the UMI and get familiar with the tool of a Hackathon for solving mobility challenges. This will serve as a guiding example, which could be taken up with other cities in India as well. Options for Nagpur to submit a project, taking forward the results from the UMI Hackathon under the TUMI Urban Mobility Challengecan be explored. The aim is further to follow-up on the results of the Hackathon within the implementation of the GIZ SMART-SUT project.

We are already excited and looking forward to the great ideas coming up at the Hackathon in Nagpur 2nd – 4^thNovember.

If you are interested to join the event, please contact Sebastian Ibold (sebastian.ibold @giz.de)

We hope to see you in Nagpur!

Best,

Sebastian Ibold, Kasinath Anbu, Levent Toprak (WG Transport & Environment Steering Group)