MoHUA launches competition to encourage, recognise transformational efforts to create beautiful public places

The 'City Beauty Competition' was designed and conceived to encourage and recognize the transformational efforts made by the cities and wards in India towards creating beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces, the Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday.

Puri launched the competition with the aim to encourage and recognize the transformational efforts made by cities and wards in India to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces.

"This Competition aims to open up opportunities for wards and cities to showcase their interventions towards creating beautiful public spaces. It would promote the conservation of the rich traditions and cultural heritage of cities, create sustainable communities, and usher in ecological conservation, while also boosting the local economy," Union Minister Puri said further adding the five broad pillars against which the wards and public places of the cities would be judged as accessibility, amenities, activities, aesthetics, and ecology.

He further mentioned that the competition would felicitate the 'most beautiful wards' and public places at the city level and said that the selected wards would be facilitated at city and State levels, at the City level, the most beautiful public places in cities viz. Waterfronts, Green spaces, tourist/heritage spaces and market/commercial places would be awarded first at the State and then shortlisted for an award at the National level.

The ministry also hopes that the healthy competition would encourage local bodies to improve their basic infrastructure, and make the urban spaces beautiful, sustainable and inclusive.

It is pertinent to mention that an Independent Jury would evaluate the entries by wards and cities. This jury is likely to consist of experts from different phases of life including urban planning, design, engineering, culture experts, environmentalists and others.

As per the instructions, the competing wards and cities would submit their entries on the citybeauty portal which would be designed by the Ministry's knowledge partners - Administrative Staff College of India. Entrants would need to establish that their ward/public place meets the requirement along a set of indicators. Entries would be judged by the Jury. To facilitate the jury, a third party independent assessment would also be carried out. The decision of the jury on winning entries would be final.

This initiative of MoHUA will encourage wards and cities to come forward to showcase their initiatives and interventions towards creating functionally beautiful public spaces, while also preserving their rich cultural heritage.

( With inputs from ANI )