For Kohima, the capital city that was placed among the dirtiest urban settlements, as per the nationwide urban cleanliness survey Swachh Survekshan in 2020 as well as gained notoriety for theft of beautification items like flower pots placed on roadside, winning the Real Play Challenge 2022 is a consolation and a big turnaround that will boost its image. It won under ‘Places where play heals people’ category from among 94 entries across 41 countries last week, for creating caregiver and children-friendly public spaces. Considering lack of space in the densely populated city besides difficult terrains, it was innovative on the part of the Kohima Smart City Development Limited (KSCDL) and Kohima Municipal Council (KMC) to transform small unused roadside spaces into pocket parks through crowdfunding, thus providing a breathing space for children, denizens and passersby alike. The KSCDL had also said in an update that it would continue to identify public spaces across Kohima and conver
Dimapur, Nov. 19 (EMN): Kohima won Real Play Challenge 2022 under ‘Places where play heals people’ category from among 94 entries received across 41 countries on Friday, for creating caregiver and children-friendly public spaces. Real Play Challenge 2022 is a global challenge that encourages cities to adopt playful placemaking to respond to critical urban issues and awards inspiring cities and urban practitioners that successfully create such spaces. Besides Kohima, two other Indian cities — Warrangal and Indore — also won the challenge under ‘Places where play unites us all’ and ‘Places where play supports climate action’ categories respectively, making it the first time for Indian cities to win in three categories, according to an update from World Resources Institute (WRI) India. All the three winning cities developed their projects as part of the national Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge (NNC), which was launched in 2019 in collaboration with the global Ur