Anant National University is collaborating with the University of Pennsylvania to recover and rejuvenate the Saidpur Nala , a polluted rain-holding system located on the boundaries of the esteemed Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Science City Museum in Patna. The Museum aims to foster scientific temper among the local youth. The state-of-the-art museum is located in a poor and low-lying neighbourhood of the city, prone to debilitating floods and, adjacent to a heavily polluted nala (a low ground made into a drain). The site of the project exemplifies a deep-seated problem with the infrastructure of cities in India, making them vulnerable to floods during monsoons.
AnantU and UPenn endorse the view that science led by innovative design thinking can facilitate radical improvements in the living environment of cities in India and the world. Historically, nalas were never used as drains and were rather operated as the lowest cultivated grounds of a locality. The Saidpur nala too was projected to be a storm water channel that today is heavily polluted with sewage and garbage. Covering it with an elevated road might prove to be a dangerous move in a monsoon landscape, and it should be kept open for the sake of uncertainty, flexibility and resilience. Anant National University along with the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), will be actively involved in the knowledge creation and research required to validate this hypothesis.
Under the leadership of Prof. Anuradha Mathur of UPenn, Graduate students from UPenn and Research Fellows and faculty from Anant National University will be actively involved in the research, documentation and analysis processes, to test if the nala can be transformed into a biotic cleanser and habitat that serves as the front for communities rather than their unsightly backyard. This could serve as the pilot case for cities to become rain holding systems and for nalas to recover their traditional role as a place of holding and cultivation, this time, with biotic cleansing material.
Anant National University is committed to nurture solutionaries who design, build and preserve a more equitable and sustainable India. It envisions in becoming India’s leading private teaching and research university in the fields of built environment, design, and sustainability.
Anant National University, located in the sprawling Sanskardham campus in Ahmedabad, is led by a cadre of eminent people from academia, business, and government, all of whom are leaders in their respective fields. Some members of AnantU’s Governing Board : Mr Ajay Piramal, President, Anant National University (Chairman, Piramal Group and Shriram Group); Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, Provost, Anant National University (Founding Dean, Indian School of Business; Founder & Trustee, Ashoka University); Mr. Abhishek Lodha (Managing Director, Lodha Group); Mr. Adil Zainulbhai (Chairman, Network18; Chairman, Quality Council of India; Former Chairman, McKinsey & Co., India); Ms. Indira Parikh (Founder President, FLAME University); Dr. Sudhir Jain (Director, IIT Gandhinagar) and several others.