The Puducherry Local Administration Department, with the technical support of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru, organised a two-day workshop over the last weekend on ‘Principles of Placemaking and Urban Design’, for engineers and officials of 15 local bodies in the Union Territory. 

An official release said a core team of around 60 engineers working in Municipalities and Commune Panchayats attended the event. The engineers were involved in execution of around 600 civic infrastructure works in 15 local bodies during 2025-26.

The workshop was organised to strengthen their skills in project identification, urban design, placemaking, stakeholder assessment, and the preparation of public spaces that are safer, more inclusive, functional, and easier to maintain. Five representative detailed project reports prepared by local body engineers, covering parks, streetscapes, crematoriums, and water bodies were taken up for detailed discussion and refinement, the release said. 

15 local bodies, at present, maintain 2,700 km of interior roads, of which approximately 500 km require improvement, including the upgrading of non-motorable, WBM (Water Bound Macadam), WMM (Wet Mix Macadam) roads to black-topped standards. Discussions were also held on the maintenance requirements of Local Body assets and mobilisation of funds from different government schemes and other sources, it said. 

“The interaction among engineers from different local bodies also facilitated peer learning, exchange of field experiences and discussions to arrive at practical solutions. The discussions focused on how public infrastructure could be designed around the needs of actual users,” the release added