REPL organized the 2nd annual J.P. Bhargava award for the Best Planning Thesis at India Habitat center, Lodhi Road (New Delhi), on 3rd June 2016.
Late. Mr. J.P. Bhargava was a renowned urban planner who served as the chief town and country planner, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh, and president of Institute of Town Planners, India. He was also the founder chairman of REPL.
REPL confers this award to encourage the young planners by recognizing their post graduate thesis. Entries were invited from all the AICTE approved institutes and ITPI offering Master’s degree or P.G. diploma in urban and/or regional planning.
Esteemed jury members for the competition, Prof. J.H. Ansari (director, REPL), Mrs. R.P. Kaushik (Advisor, YEIDA) and Ms. Meena Bhargava (GM, YEIDA) evaluated all the thesis on parameters like innovation, practicability, depth of analysis and conclusions for shortlisting best three thesis. Out of these three, winners were decided by the audience voting, based on students’ presentations in the event.
Mr. Hemant Sharma of SPA Delhi, won the first prize for his thesis, ‘Identification of future smart cities in a region: A case study of Karnataka’. The other two finalists were joint second prize winners – Ms. Purva Saxena from SPA Bhopal (Low carbon mobility plan for the CBD: A case study of M.P. Nagar, Bhopal) and Ms. Christy Ann Cheriyan of CEPT Ahmedabad (Assessment of Transit transfer experience, case of Bangalore).
Winner received cash prize of Rs. 1, 00,000/-, while two other finalist were given Rs. 50,000/- each.
Representatives from government, academic, public and private institutions such as, NCRB, TCPO, HUDCO, IIPA, DDA, MCD, IUT, NCR Cell – UP, NPC, SPA, JMI, Amity University, Ansal, YEIDA and MoUD graced the occasion with their presence.
Mr. Pradeep Misra (CMD-REPL) said, “Our aim is to encourage the young planners who will shape the urban landscape of the country in future”