IIT Roorkee inks MoU with NIUA for collaboration in building accessible, safe and inclusive Indian cities

Roorkee (Uttarakhand) [India], September 5 : The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee for collaboration in areas of universal design principles and inclusive development in the backdrop of 'Building Accessible Safe Inclusive Indian Cities' (BASIIC) program.
The MoU was signed between Professor Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee and Hitesh Vaidya, Director, NIUA. It will facilitate cooperation in the field policy research, technical support, knowledge creation and dissemination.
The association will aim to leverage the technical capacities of both institutions, which will lead to creation and sharing of knowledge and resources for devising strategies in making Indian cities more accessible, safe, and inclusive for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), elderly, women, and children among others.
It is envisaged that the association will benefit Indian cities through a range of activities and partnership projects that can be scaled up and replicated for several Indian cities.
"We are elated to partner with an apex Institution like National Institute of Urban Affairs to augment government efforts in building safe and inclusive smart cities. The collaboration will enrich domain expertise on universal design and inclusion as a core theme and facilitate knowledge sharing towards developing excellence in research and implementation programmes of urban futures in India. The partnership with NIUA will strengthen the emerging possibilities towards urban inclusion through exchange of research, capacity development and other partnerships with Indian cities that will emerge on the way", said Professor Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee.
"It is a momentous occasion for both NIUA and IIT Roorkee and I am especially excited for the motivations behind this partnership. IIT Roorkee is an academic institution par excellence. It's Department of Architecture and Planning is globally acclaimed for its cutting-edge research and expertise. We are glad to have found a partner in change with them in an endeavour which will facilitate the building of accessible, inclusive, and safe Smart cities as envisaged under the BASIIC program. NIUA also envisions itself to strongly position itself in the domain of inclusive development and align itself with the Prime Minister's vision of new India. I am looking forward to the partnership and the smart-technical solutions that will come along with it, which will help set a renewed discourse to making Indian cities more accessible and inclusive" said Hitesh Vaidya, Director, NIUA
According to the MoU, the mandate of both institutions extends to the exchange of information and data sharing, undertaking research projects aligned to inclusive development, exchange of visits for joint activities and much more.