Leaving Chittagong, the Kobe delegation visited Chennai, India, from 26 to 28 February 2004. In the afternoon of 27 February at a conference room of the Chennai Corporation Building, they had a monitoring meeting with the Commissioner of the Chennai Corporation, and the corporation officials who participated AUICK's past training courses.

Mr. M.P. Vijayakumar, Commissioner of Chennai Corporation, fully endorsed AUICK’s 2004-2007 Strategy, expressing that it is more beneficial to focus on one area to produce results, rather than spreading resources far and wide. Mr. Vijayakumar went further to say, “If we can pull our resources, focus our attention in one area, then this city can produce results, this is definitely a better strategy for creating urban models. We are very excited to see AUICK is coming forward with such an excellent proposal, which we feel it will greatly benefit us and we would like to make full use of this opportunity. We are doing many things in a very small way, in bits and pieces, in an isolated way, so they all need to be properly integrated and scaled up so the city moves in one direction.”

Chennai officials were very pleased that Chennai had been selected as an AUICK Associate City for the new strategic project of 2004-2007, and committed to work together with AUICK to provide data on their city and to share ideas and knowledge with the other eight AACs in order to implement the most effective action plans for Chennai. Officials were also excited by the possibility of Chennai becoming a model city for urban planning and management. They assured the delegation that they would come prepared with their own data set to prepare a realistic action plan at the end of the training.

Comments from the past participants

Ms. Apoorva, Joint Commissioner （Health), attended the 2003 Workshop on Population and Sustainable Development.

She expressed her satisfaction with AUICK training courses and acknowledged the benefits brought to Chennai. She also noted that attending training courses in Kobe, with other planners from throughout Asia, had encouraged Chennai officials to seek new ideas and to share information with other cities to achieve best practice.

Ms. Apoorva also suggested that AUICK invite well-known experts in each field to the AACs for a short term assignment so that city officials can work closely with them.

“Not only they will be able to share their experiences in the sector but help them in the preparation of action plans for their cities.  I feel that only the senior staff of each section that have long-term appointments with the city should be trained.  Some bureaucrats in Chennai are frequently transferred. The training of such officials who are on short term appointments with the city would not bring lasting benefits to Chennai.”

Mr. Darmendra Pratap Yadav, Deputy Commissioner (Education), attended the 2002 Seminar on Population Ageing and Administrative Conterneasures.

Implementation of projects based on what participants have learned in AUICK training was exemplified by his following comments.

"Soon after I came back from the seminar, I prepared a concept paper for starting a fully fledged college for senior citizens in Chennai City. The concept paper was circulated widely among corporation officials, government officials, educationlists and voluntary organizations. The concept paper was also submitted to the State Planninng Commission through Professor M.S. Swanimathan, a noted agricultural scientist and Vice Chairman of the State Planning Commission. After such detailed discussion the Commission has recommended to the State Government to commence a College for Senior Citizens as part of their overall Senior Citizens Policy.”

He also expressed his opinions about the training courses:

"It will be more appropriate to verify the areas of urban governance which are directly dealth by the local bodies of the participating cities and organize training program accordingly. Alternatively, AUICK can increase the scope of its partnership in the partner cities to include other developmental agencies related to governance of urban issues in the partiner cities so that their officials also get benefit by the training program since many of the seminar themes related to agencies other than the urban local body."

"The paricipants should be called for repeat training and feedback session of short duration at Kobe where they should specify the concrete efforts taken by them to use the knowledge gained during training sessions and enhance their understanding."
 

Mr. Sankaran Vijayakumar attended the 2000 Seminar on Public Utilities in Asian Cities as Deputy Commissioner (Education, Parks & Play Fields), Chennai Corporation.  Now he is Collector & District Magistrate, Ramanathapuram City.

“I found that AUICK training beneficial to our work.  I had implemented in my sector thanks to the knowledge, ideas, and experiences gained from AUICK training.  I have great satisfaction with the training I received at AUICK.  I implemented some of the ideas I received during the training."

Mr. Swaminathan Arumugam, Chief Engneer (General), attended the 2003 Seminar on Population and Sustainable Water Management in Urban Planning.

“I have proposed to share with the experience learned during the training course with the connected officials of the Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board on the acute scarcity of water supply in Chennai city which needs to be discussed based on the projects and the implementation of schemes in Kobe City.”

He made a suggestion on the period of training courses:

“I feel that two weeks is sufficient time for training if there were a six day working week and longer hours. This would maximize training time without extending the number of days officials are absent from their posts.  I also would like to suggest that Sundays be reserved for field visits.”

All other ex-trainees also felt that it will not be possible for the senior officers to be away from their work for more than two weeks.