The city of Surat, home to 42% of the world?s total rough diamond cutting and polishing, faced its worst ever crisis in September 1994 with the outbreak of plague. It has been a remarkable story of comeback. In 2008-09, it won the ?Best Performing City? award from the Ministry of Urban Development. Again, in 2010, a Government of India study ranked Surat 3rd on its sanitation score across 423 cities of India. Surat has made full use of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission in working towards its urban renewal, bagging 34 projects worth Rs 2,429 crore under the Mission.

What is strikingly different and refreshing is Surat?s focus on the quality of life of its residents and not just on the hard physical infrastructure. The slogan ?The city that cares? may well have arisen from adversity, but it has become a way of life for the city?s administrators.

Use of mobile phones to provide real time information on vaccinations for babies is an m-Governance initiative of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) that should reduce costs of healthcare for parents. Those who provide their mobile number at the time of registering the birth of their child are issued alerts to vaccinate their child against preventable diseases according to the schedule prescribed under the national immunisation programme. The alerts are personalised and child-specific, compared to the usual standardised print and electronic blurbs, and have evoked the desired response. The service is low cost for the Corporation and involves no cost to the citizen. Over 2,00,000 messages have been sent since the start of the initiative in 2009, covering nearly 50,000 parents who have availed of the ?vaccination alert on SMS? initiative.

In Project Yashoda, healthy mothers donate milk, and after proper pasteurisation, the milk is stored and passed on to newborn babies who need it. Started in December 2008, the human milk bank has received 43,000 ml of milk from 570 mothers, and 450 babies have received 39,000 ml of milk from the bank.

The SMC conducts medical camps in low-income localities every year during the monsoon season (every Saturday in the months of July, August and September). In 2010, so far, 78 medical camps have been held with 4,700 doctors attending on 13,000 patients, and conducting 218 cases of surgeries. Medicines are provided free of cost to patients visiting the camp. A Health Exhibition to educate people on the prevention of diseases is organised on the sidelines of the camps.

The city has taken many initiatives to serve its senior citizens. A number of gardens have been developed for them in residential areas. Known as Shantikunj, these quiet corners are exclusively for senior citizens. Newspapers are provided free of cost every morning at these gardens. The Corporation has also built a Senior Citizen Centre at a cost of Rs 1.3 crore, with a meditation hall, a room for medical check-ups, a reading room, a Conference hall and a hall for multi-purpose activities. Over 20,000 senior citizens are expected to avail the services offered by this Centre. In the spirit of caring, the rebate on property tax for senior citizens was introduced in 2007-08 at 5% and raised to 10% in 2009-10.

Surat?s Veer Narmad Central Library has a collection of over 2,50,000 books and an e-library of over 1,500 e-books. The Corporation has built 47 reading rooms and actively manages these to inculcate the habit of reading amongst its citizens. To cater to the needs of its challenged citizens, the Library also houses a collection of over 2,600 Braille books on different subjects in Gujarati and English. The facilities include free membership, audio equipment and free home delivery of books.

The city that cares also fares well on the cultural front. It has been focusing on building infrastructure aimed at making it an attractive place to live in. An institutional complex with a Science Centre, an Art Gallery and a Museum complex has been built at a cost of Rs 44 crore and was inaugurated in November 2009. It includes a planetarium, a city museum, a science gallery with over 51 exhibits, an auditorium and an amphitheatre. The admission fee ranging from Rs 30-80 per person is moderate and contributes towards maintenance of the complex. The Corporation is now building a Performing Arts Centre to provide rehearsal and performance space at low cost to learning and budding artists.

Since 2007, Surat has been celebrating Heritage Week from the 19th to the 25th of November, creating awareness of history and tradition through activities like heritage walks, seminars and exhibitions concerning the city?s heritage. The Surat Municipal Corporation has created a Heritage Cell, formed a Heritage Conservation Committee and set up a Heritage Fund to protect and promote its cultural history. Over 2,800 public and private properties of heritage value have been identified and documented through an extensive survey. The Corporation is now working with local architects and other agencies to finalise the blueprint for the development of the Chowk area in the city as a Heritage Square. A 400-year-old historic water tank?the Gopi Talao?in the heart of the old city is being restored to conserve heritage as well as environment.

Surat is a highly flood-prone city with more than three-fourths of its 3.8 million population in the coastal plains at risk from the overflowing of river Tapti. In 2006, the river flowed into nearly 70% of Surat, causing unprecedented havoc. A recent study has highlighted that slums and low-income settlements of Surat that are located close to the river are extremely vulnerable to floods. To counter the threat, the Corporation has set up the Surat City Advisory Committee to prepare a strategy for resilience. Surat is one of the 10 cities selected under the Rockefeller Foundation?s Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network. Under this initiative, local institutions and individual experts have come together to study climate change impacts on health, energy, transport and housing, with a focus on the more vulnerable sections of the society.

Citizen-focused initiatives have also been successful in attracting greater community participation in city management. Ward Committees constituted in March 2008 meet once a month to discuss development issues and recommend works and activities for priority attention. An online system for registration of grievances and redressal has been started since July 2009. Of the 2,500 complaints received between July 2009 and September 2010, 2,300 have been resolved.

Surat received the ?Most Inclusive Approach? award from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation in 2009 for its initiatives for the urban poor. Note that 42,000 houses are being constructed for the economically weaker sections of society. Between 1980 and 2006, over 12,600 sites and over 7,400 built houses were allotted on lease basis to the poor urban households. In the last 2 years alone, over 12,000 households from slums have been rehabilitated in well-planned colonies.

Building liveable cities is not only about mega projects. Surat has shown that small initiatives matter. As Commissioner S Aparna put it, ?The ?caring initiatives? are one way of reaching out to citizens and taking care of the small things that matter a lot to individuals.?

Isher Judge Ahluwalia is chair of Icrier and chair of the high powered expert committee on urban infrastructure. Ranesh Nair is a consultant to the committee. Views are personal

This is the 9th in a monthly series on urban infrastructure

postcardsofchange@expressindia.com