Interested parties can sign up for the Web site's mailing list. Visit the site here: http://indiapeering.com/.

The Center for Sustainable Transport in India (CST-India) launched a peer-to-peer Web site in July to allow Indian city officials and local transport planners to share information about their sustainable transport initiatives.

About the City Peering Program:

The city peering program aims to connect Indian cities developing sustainable transport activities, with a special focus on cities working on projects funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The city peering program enables knowledge-sharing about range of peer-to-peer activities in cities that participate in the Sustainable Urban Transport Program (SUTP).

The city peering program aims to facilitate the development of capacity in national and local authorities and in transport planning professionals by documenting and sharing experiences in the development of the selected programs and projects. This will help create an Indian knowledge base so more cities are able to implement sustainable transport projects. The program also aims to develop capacity by sharing international experiences to accelerate the learning curve of the national and local authorities and sector professionals.

The main objectives of the city peering program will be to:

1. Help SUTP cities learn from each other by providing mechanisms to facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences.
2. Support the exchange of project planning and implementation activities
3. Help develop indigenous best practices that are appropriate and relevant to the local context.
4. Disseminate lessons learned as widely as possible
5. Document activities and learning's from the SUTP program, so that they can be used in the future.

Currently the program is divided into Phase I and II.

Phase I Cities

1. Indore, Madhya Pradesh
2. Mysore, Karnataka
3. Pune, Maharashtra
4. Pimpri Chinchwad, Maharashtra

Phase II Cities

1. Jalandhar, Punjab
2. Naya Raipur, Chattisgarh

The city peering program is part of the Sustainable Urban Transport Project, a partnership between the Government of India (GoI), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), The World Bank, and the United Nations Development program (UNDP). The program supports the implementation of the National Urban Transport Policy, which was issued by GoI’s Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) in April 2006. The city peering Web site is produced by EMBARQ – The WRI Center For Sustainable Transport.