Mobility

A press release stated that the Auroville Foundation has proposed to launch a tram and toy train network in collaboration with the Indian Railways to improve internal transportation in Auroville.

From clunky prototypes to a thriving EV ecosystem, Auroville’s journey mirrors India’s evolving electric vehicle landscape – driven by innovation, resilience, and a vision for sustainable transport.

In Auroville Tomorrow no. 5, Anupama Kundoo, the head of Urban Design at the ATDC, introduced a proposal for independent transport networks in the city tied to the Crown.

This interview with Anupama Kundoo is the third article in the series ‘city perspectives’. Anupama Kundoo graduated from Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Mumbai in 1989 and received her doctoral degree from TU Berlin in 2008.

The planet desperately needs a collective second-tier solution, and Auroville could provide this. It’s a fascinating time. We are facing a very serious, even existential, threat at the moment, and the outcome is uncertain.

On April 15 and 16 Youthlink surveyed the community about road safety. There was a polling board, letterbox for further suggestions and information was given out.

Recently, the Dreamweaving the Crown exercise finished. Approximately 70 people – Dreamweaving architects, their peers, multidisciplinary experts, focus groups and randomly selected members of the Residents Assembly – took part at various stages of the exercise, which began with a Crown walk at the end of December and concluded with an exhibition and presentation to the larger community in early April process [see AV Today no.391 for full details of the programme].

An overview for the benefit of mobility dummies.

Prashant Hedao is a landscape architect and environmental planner with a Masters in Landscape Architecture and a Ph.D in Geography. He is also a consultant with the WHO's GIS Centre for Health.

The steady increase in private car ownership in Auroville, as well as the hike in outside cars and autos circulating daily within the community, gives rise to the question: Is Auroville falling well behind ‘best practice’ examples of transport that are thriving in other parts of the world?

Architect David Nightingale has been developing a plan for Auroville’s Cultural Zone, which has led him to more broadly consider Auroville’s urban planning and mobility issues.

Chandresh, one of the founders of the Electric Vehicle Service group, talks about Auroville’s mobility issues, the failed and successful attempts to move Auroville towards smart mobility, and the future prospects.

Taxi-sharing reduces carbon emissions

The Joy of Learning is an experiment in collective learning which addresses a wide range of themes associated with life in Auroville. It tries to (re)familiarise the residents with important issues in a stimulating and respectful learning environment, and is supported with funding from Stichting de Zaaier.

Luis Feduchi is a Spanish architect and town planner. He was Professor of Urban Design at the Berlin Technical University, Germany before moving back to Spain to work as Dean of Architecture of the University of Madrid.

Sauro has been part of L’Avenir d’Auroville, Auroville’s town planning group, since it was set up in 2007. Here he answers questions on a wide range of planning topics.

The thing about a communication situation like Auroville’s is that since most information sharing is by word of mouth, what little remains to be recorded in print is only what isn’t worth the verbal interspersion.