In the wake of the growing population due to the upcoming capital city, the slum habitations on the canal bunds, hill slopes, and other hazardous pockets need attention. A team of research scholars from the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Vijayawada, has taken up a European Union (EU)-funded project –Building Inclusive Communities (BInUCom) – to effectively address the issue.

BInUCom is an Erasmus Plus project that has brought three European Universities – Danube University, Austria; Lund University, Sweden; and University of Twente, Netherlands; and four Indian Universities – SPA, Vijayawada; CEPT University (Ahmedabad); Karpagam University, Coimbatore; and Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture and Environment (KRVIA), Mumbai; to put in place an effective plan for inclusive urban communities/informal sector. 

The EU’s Erasmus combines all current schemes of education, training, youth and sport.

Members of the research team include SPA’s Head of Architecture Department S. Ramesh; HoD-Planning Mohamed Razak; associate professor in the Department of Planning Ayon Kumar Tarafdar; and assistant professor, Department of Architecture, D. Srinivas. Nagaraju Kaja is the project coordinator. 

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