Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI) will be organising a three-day 69th National Town and Country Planners Conference, from February 26 to 28, here in the city.
Addressing a press conference about the conference here on Thursday, Secretary General of ITPI, S.B. Kodankar, said that the theme of the conference is ‘Sustainable Development Goals in the context of COVID-19’, with sub-themes on ‘Environment and Climate Change’, ‘Housing Strategy for LIG and MIG’, and ‘Water Sensitive Planning’. He said that the local sub-theme for the conference is ‘Integrated Coastal Region Development Plan’, which was decided keeping in view the 974 km coastal line of Andhra Pradesh.
Mr. Kodankar said that generally the conference sees about 500 participants, but due to COVID-19 situation, they have registered physical participants count to 250, while another 350 participants would join the programme in online.
Speakers from United Nations Organisation (UNO), Environmental Experts, Housing Department, Coastal Region Development, will attend the conference. Apart from them, many delegates would address the programme online, he said.
He said that ITPI was formed in 1951 as an apex body of qualified town planners, and it now has over 6,500 members. ITPI functions through 24 Regional Chapters, and five regional centres including Andhra Pradesh Regional Chapter and Visakhapatnam Regional Centre.
ITPI president N.K. Patel and vice-president V. Ramudu, said that every year after the conference, the deliberations by the experts are prepared, and the recommendations formulated and sent to the government and other stakeholders. They said that last year, the conference was held in Navi Mumbai and by the end of the conference, the ITPI sent 10 to 15 recommendations to the State Government. The Maharastra government has adopted some of recommendations, they added.
ITPI’s Andhra Pradesh Regional Centre chairman B. Balaji and others were present.
