By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 07, 2018: INDIA and France have signed an implementation agreement on “MOBILISE YOUR CITY” (MYC) here last evening in the presence of Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Mr Hardeep Singh Puri and Mr Alexander Ziegler, Ambassador of France in India. The agreement was signed by Mr Mukund Kumar Sinha, OSD & Ex-Officio Joint Secretary, M/o Housing and Urban Affairs for India while Regional Director, Agence Française de Développement (AfD), Mr Nicolas Fornage, signed the agreement on behalf of AfD.

Mobilise Your City (MYC) is part of an international initiative which is supported by the French and the German Governments and was launched at 21 st Conference of Parties (COP21) meeting in December, 2015. Based on a proposal made by AFD in 2015, the European Union has agreed to provide funds of Euro 3.5 million through the AFD to contribute to specific investments and technical assistance components within the Mobilise Your City (MYC) programme in India.

The MYC aims at supporting three pilot cities viz. Nagpur, Kochi and Ahmedabad in their efforts to reduce their Green House Gas (GHG) emissions related to urban transport by implementing urban mobility plans at local level and to help India at national level to improve their sustainable transport policy.

The three pilot cities selected under the programme as well as MoHUA will benefit from the Technical Assistance activities. The main components of the proposed assistance are:

(1) to support planning and implementation of sustainable urban transport projects,

(2) support to strengthening institutional capacity for regulating, steering and planning urban mobility, and

(3) learning and exchange formats with other cities across India for exchanges on best practices.

The details of the project activities will be worked out by AFD in consultation with MoHUA and the three partner cities including institutions such as the respective Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for Smart Cities, the Municipal Corporations and any transport authority or transport related SPV.