The global BEA partnership selected six BEA partner cities for a deeper support in 2016-17. Rajkot was one of the six cities selected globally to participate in deep dive engagement that funded one partner organisation to engage with the Rajkot city until November 2017. For this, ICLEI South Asia was selected and engaged by WRI to act as the lead organisation to plan and execute the work plan alongside the city. The engagement required working with the city for 12-16 months as a technical adviser. Under this capacity, ICLEI South Asia facilitated implementation of a work plan through collaboration with global and local partners for:
• Stakeholder engagement and events
• Technical support, including process, policy and project development, product and service options and project pipeline development/funding
• City leadership and recognition
• City-to-city networking and peer learning
Besides, ICLEI South Asia also managed other activities as necessary to enable the city to fulfill its action commitments. It was targeted that with this process, the city and ICLEI South Asia will build local capacity to continue building efficiency activities even after direct assistance through BEA ends.
In addition to this, an Investment Grade Energy Audit (IGA) was conducted on two selected RMC buildings viz. RMC Central Zone Office Building and RMC Multi-activity centre in Rajkot in order to identify the current status of energy performance of the selected buildings and advice on potential cost-efficient measures to improve it.
Moreover, the RMC prepared a Green Building Policy for the city. Implemented by the ICLEI South Asia, with support from World Resource Institute and the UN SE4All Initiative, the policy aimed to create incentives for resource efficient buildings that were urgently needed in cities to reduce the ever-increasing demand for resources by building sector.
Under the project, the Akshay Urja Rajkot/Rajkot SMART Energy Lab website was developed and launched by the Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Vijay Rupani. The SMART Energy Lab, encouraged the adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency products and appliances with a mission to bring about sustainable, eco-friendly and energy efficient development of the Rajkot City.