Aluva municipality signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a UK-based engineering and design firm with regard to the country’s ‘Future Cities’ project on Monday evening. The MoU was signed among Christ Birdsong, Asia Pacific CEO, Atkins, a British engineering and design group, M T Jacob, Chairman, Aluva Municipality and A S Anuja, Municipal Secretary.
The MoU will be a vision document for the next 50 years for the municipality, officials said. The masterplan will be developed by the Atkins group, which has handled key engineering projects internationally, including Kochi’s own Lulu mall.
The masterplan will focus more on health and environment aspects of the municipality.
A discussion on this regard was held between Cyril Pickles, Minister for Metro Development, UK and officials of the Aluva Municipality last June.
“The MoU is for five years. The municipality will not have to bear any financial burden, but will share details for the preparation of the masterplan,” he said.
Bharat Bhushan, United Kingdom’s Deputy High Commissioner to Chennai said that the project will be big boost for the municipality.
“The ‘Future Cities Project’ is envisioned to enable cities worldwide to combat climate change, to implement proactive strategies against floods and to intiate action on various other development initiatives. It will be funded by the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID),” said Bharat while addressing media on Sunday morning. He said that usually large cities are considered for the project, but this time UK is considering Aluva, which is at the end of a large developing city like Kochi.
We are looking forward to work with the municipality, said Bharat.
On the sidelines of the function in which the MoU was signed, Prince Charles watched the screening of films on Metro rail, Nedumbassery airport and the river Periyar.