Varanasi City Challenge

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The Sustainable Cities Challenge Varanasi

Since launching in June 2024, we have been looking for innovators to:

Create innovative, data-driven solutions that make crowded areas of Varanasi’s old city of Kashi safer and more accessible for religious tourists, local residents and vulnerable populations (such as elderly people and people with disabilities).

Successful solutions might’ve included:

Tools that support the city to better manage overcrowding events
Interventions that improve citizen decision-making
Services that support vulnerable groups

Entries for this challenge are now closed.

Finalists have now selected by our judging panel. Find out more and meet the teams below.

Why do we need to make crowded areas safe in Varanasi?

The City of Varanasi is located in Northern India along the Ganges River. It is thought to be one of the oldest cities in the world and is an incredibly important pilgrimage site.

Large volumes of people visit Varanasi’s old city (Kashi) every year for pilgrimage, end of life traditions, and other religious and cultural activities. In 2022, the annual floating population was estimated to be 35 times the local population.

The old city comprises narrow, winding lanes, making it difficult to build infrastructure to accommodate the influx of people. A growing number of private vehicles are used to navigate these lanes, which contributes to a complex environment prone to crowding.

Varanasi seeks to attract pioneering solutions that will enable more effective crowd management, and in doing so position the city as a global success story.

Image of a south Asian women in India, dressed in cultural clothing carrying a stick, walking past a colorful painted wall.

Watch this to learn more about the Varanasi City Challenge

Who are the finalists?

Arcadis

Arcadis is the world’s leading company delivering intelligence-driven sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.

The team solution is an integrated solution called SANKALP, an ecosystem of interconnected technologies designed to shift from reactive measures to proactive, intelligent crowd management. SANKALP will use real-time data, advanced simulation, mobile technology, and integrated communications platforms to keep people moving safely and efficiently.

CITYDATA.ai

CITYDATA.ai is a pioneering big data and AI company that delivers mobility intelligence to foster smarter, safer, more sustainable, and resilient urban environments.

The team’s solution is CityFlow, a cloud-based solution that uses big data, computer vision, and generative AI to measure, analyze, simulate, and manage crowds in real time. Built on the MASI framework, it delivers actionable insights without the need for new hardware.

Intpixel Labs Private Limited

VOGIC AI is at the forefront of Vision AI for public good, transforming video data into real-time intelligence for defense, smart cities, and crowd-sensitive public spaces.

VOGIC AI’s solution is Behtar-Way, India’s first AI powered, hyperlocal community-first pedestrian navigation platform. The team’s solution will help guide citizens through safer, alternative routes and equipping city officials with real-time crowd intelligence.

Prameya Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Prameya Consulting Pvt. Ltd. is an urban planning and strategy firm that aims to drive urban transformation through collaborative problem-solving and strategic planning.

The team’s solution is Nayichaal, a phygital AI ecosystem combining a chatbot, navigation app, wayfinding signage, and a mobility dashboard to improve mobility, inclusivity, and safety.

Urbanizer

The Urbanizer is a pioneering urban design, landscape design, and architecture firm based in India. They specialize in creating vibrant, sustainable urban spaces through a data-driven and human-centric approach.

The team’s solution is Jan Jatra, a people-first mobility solution blending local insights with color-coded wayfinding, dynamic digital signage, and other tactical urbanism strategies to improve navigation and safety.

Our judges

Meet the judges for the Sustainable Cities Varanasi Challenge who have now selected the finalists. The chosen teams will further develop their innovative, data-driven solutions that will make crowded areas of Varanasi’s old city of Kashi safer and more accessible for religious tourists, local residents and vulnerable populations.

Utsav Choudhury

Utsav is a trained anthropologist from Delhi University with nearly a decade of experience in the development sector. He focuses on initiatives that promote the inclusion of vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities, women, children, and the economically disadvantaged. He has substantial expertise in implementing and managing human-centric projects and has been involved in various multilateral engagements with organizations such as USAID, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Bernard van Leer Foundation, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK Government, and more recently, the United Nations in India.

Namrata Mehta

Namrata nurtured her passion for change-making while studying Sociology and Experimental Media Arts in India. She has spent her career around the world helping organisations in tech, philanthropy and government develop and deliver solutions for sustainable urbanisation. At UN-Habitat, Namrata leads the Climate Smart Cities Challenge, developing the organization’s approach to challenge-driven innovation in and for cities. Namrata lives in the sweltering city of Chennai, India.

Dr Ashish Verma

Prof. Ashish Verma is a Professor of Transportation Systems at IISc Bangalore and heads the IISc Sustainable Transportation Lab, where he has driven sustainable mobility research for over 15 years. His work spans public transit planning, non-motorized transport, climate-resilient systems, and crowd management, including the notable “Kumbh Mela Experiment.” With over 285 publications, he is also the Editor-in-Chief of Sustainable Transport and Livability and holds a patent and software copyright.