SUBMITTED BY:

ANUJA GITE, SHREYA CHAUDHARI & ASHISH SHETTI

Final Project Report

NARSEE MONJEE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES,

MUMBAI
 Table Of Contents

1. Acknowledgement

2. About Green Ecospace Foundation

3. Road Safety: Zero Accidents on Ghodbunder Road

4. Stakeholder Communication

5. Sustainable Mobility in Hiranandani Estate

6. Internship Learnings & Challenges

 Acknowledgement
We would like to express our gratitude to the Green Ecospace Foundation for providing us with
the opportunity to work on multiple projects that would help to promote a sustainable and safe
environment to live in. A special thanks to the Project Mentors, Mr. Amit Sethi, Mr. PK
Suryanarayanan and Ms. Archana Mangalagiri for their guidance and constant support
throughout our projects. We would like to extend our gratitude to the entire Executive
committee for helping us out with their opinions, suggestions and expertise.

We were made aware about the importance of road safety and the need to implement safety
measures through the Road safety project. The Stakeholder communication project helped us
understand the importance of funding for an organisation and gave us an opportunity to design
dossiers for pitching to different stakeholders. The Sustainable mobility project has helped us
understand the grave problem of pollution caused by carbon emission since the past few years
and made us aware about the need to use eco-friendly modes of transportation. The project
methodology allowed us to learn about different ways of conducting research. The mentors
guided us on conducting several modes of primary research such as Focus Group Discussions,
Field Survey and Online Survey. Analysis of data from Primary and Secondary research helped
us to formulate recommendations for Sustainable Mobility in Hiranandani estate of Thane

We would also like to thank the WeCare team for facilitating the arrangement of this internship
for us and Prof. Anjalika Gujar for her guidance and mentorship.
 About Green Ecospace Foundation

Green Eco space foundation (GEF) is a section 8, not for profit company that was incorporated
in 2019. The company aims to address the issues that affect the society through timely action
and intervention. GEF has been active in voicing its opinion on issues such as road safety,
deforestation, waste management and water conservation. GEF is currently working on the
issues faced by residents in Hiranandani Estate, Thane and along the Ghodbunder road.

Vision - To inspire, create and evolve sustainable communities.

Objectives -
1. To grow and maintain green cover
2. To reduce and manage waste
3. To curb pollution and ensure road safety
4. To conserve water

GEF started its ambitious project ‘Zero accidents on Ghodbunder road’ in August 2019 with an
aim to foster collaboration amongst multiple stakeholders to solve the problem of road safety.
Through this project it aims to address the problems such as poor quality of roads, lack of road
signs, double-parking on the GB road. A webinar involving road safety experts was conducted
on 26th February,2021 by the GEF team.

GEF was actively involved during the Covid-19 induced lockdown. It provided F&B kits to the
families that were severely affected and finding it difficult to sustain a livelihood. The initiative
benefitted more than 100 families in areas around Thane. The team also ensured supply of
masks, gloves and sanitizers to the Traffic police. It was also associated with

One of the objectives of GEF is to maintain the green cover. It has undertaken multiple
plantations drives and over 500 saplings were planted during these initiatives. GEF has
frequently conducted cleanliness drives to promote sanitation within the Hiranandani Estate.
 Road Safety: Zero Accidents on Ghodbunder Road

Project Need:

India’s record for road safety is one of the worst in the world. According to a report by the
World Bank, India accounts for just 1% of the world’s vehicles and 11% of the global deaths in
road accidents, killing 1 person every 4 minutes. After taking into account the under-reporting
and crash ratio data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, the report estimates the
cost of such crashes to be about 3.14% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Additionally,
according to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 76.2% of people who are killed in
such road crashes are in the prime-working age population of 18-45 years. This threatens a
serious financial burden on households and on an individual level. According to Minister of
Road Transport and Highways of India, Nitin Gadkari, we could potentially save upto 90 lakhs
per person by minimising injuries and averting death in road accidents.

Ghodbunder Road, a vital road in Thane, is a part of the National Highway. It connects the
Eastern Express Highway to the Western Express Highway. Being used extensively by residential
and commercial traffic, the road reports a significant number of accidents that result in injuries
and loss of life.

Project Objective:

The objective of the project “Zero Accidents on Ghodbunder Road” is ambitious; however
Green Ecospace Foundation believes in working towards such very targets and making this busy
road a safer place through adopting the 4E Framework of Education, Enforcement, Engineering
and Emergency Care. Below is an outline of the steps GEF has taken till now to implement the
framework:

1. Education: Conducting awareness drives, in Thane, for road safety rules and conducted
a webinar during COVID times with the DCP of Thane.

2. Enforcement: GEF provided assistance to the Thane Police for enforcing regulations
against wrong side driving, illegal parking, over speeding etc and such issues have been
highlighted to TMC as well.
 3. Engineering: GEF has been highlighting issues that, if implemented, can reduce
accidents on the road. A few of those are signage /signboards at appropriate locations,
installing rumblers, marking zebra crossings and so on.

4. Emergency Care: Collecting information about hospitals on the Ghodbunder Road

stretch with the aim of having a universal emergency contact number that will reduce
time required for appropriate action taken and increase chances of saving lives.

Implementation of Recommendations Finalised:

As part of implementation of the recommendations, our first step was to review the stretch of
Ghodbunder Road from Majiwada to Anand Nagar Crossing. The review involved identifying
and collecting evidence of issues present that GEF has been highlighting to the authorities.  Key
areas highlighted through this exercise were absence of signages and signboards, poor quality
of footpaths, absence of crossings and speed breakers or rumblers, double side parking,
delayed construction activity resulting in blocking of service roads and overall quality of the
road. A number of evidences collected are presented below: 

Further steps included drafting letters to the DCP Shri Balasaheb Patil, which would be utilised during
the meeting in his office. The letter highlighted GEF’s previous association with the DCP and highlighted
areas that need to be worked upon.
 Stakeholder Communication

Project Objective:

To come up with an effective communication strategy including design, layout and navigation
across all platforms keeping in mind the needs of donors

Project Need:

The importance of effective stakeholder communication cannot be overemphasised for any

organisation, more so for a Section 8 company that is governed by multiple regulators.
Identification of different stakeholders, the types of communication, the content, the frequency
of update, etc need to be studied in detail. Mediums of communication need to be identified
and synchronous communication across all platforms has to be established.

Project Deliverables:

Corporate Stakeholder Presentation

Corporate plays an important role in providing assistance to social welfare organisations.

Corporates are mandated by the government to spend at least 2% of their profits in CSR
initiatives. These CSR activities are aligned with the SDG stated by the United Nations.
Corporates look to fund the organisations that have their objectives aligned with the company's
SDG. It is therefore important for the Non-Profit Organisation to pitch in a professional manner
that describes their activities and how they plan to utilise the funds for social welfare.

The deliverable for this project included a presentation that was drafted keeping in mind the
activities of Green Ecospace Foundation and its alignment with the UN SDG. This would enable
the organisation to seek funding from corporate who are aligned with these goals. We have
identified 5 SDGs that are aligned to the activities carried out by Green Ecospace Foundation.

● SDG 3 - Good Health and Well Being

● SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation
● SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
● SDG 13 - Climate Action
● SDG 15 - Life on land
A presentation was prepared considering suggestions and views of the mentors and the GEF’s
Executive Committee. The report included a brief introductory slide followed by a timeline of
GEF’s activities. There were multiple slides that highlighted the activities undertaken by GEF in
maintaining green cover, Road safety, Waste management and Covid Support. A final slide
highlighting the future activities to be undertaken by GEF was also included. A few Excerpts
from its volunteers were included followed by the contact details of GEF and its social media
handles.

Individual Stakeholder Dossier

The dossier is an effort to strategically focus communication efforts around goals outlined by
the project need and the focus on individuals in this case. The first step in the project was to
understand the ways we can tailor the message to an individual and consider the mediums to
be utilised for such communications. 

The idea behind these dossiers was that individuals who would provide funding to the NGO
would look at whether the funds are going towards a mission that has meaning and whether
such funds would be used wisely. Green Ecospace Foundation has 4 significant verticals under
its operations that also happen to be areas of concern today for a lot of people. Efforts were
made to find ways of communicating and sharing the outcomes of their operations in these
verticals in the past 3 years in a concise manner. The dossier should also be able to form a
connection with the individual hence pictures and elements that were consistent with the
brand of the NGO and also were able to accurately display the level of activity were utilised.
While communicating with an individual, it’s important to share the big picture but make sure
to find a way in which the donors feel like even a small contribution would make a difference. 
Hence ending with a quantifiable call to action is key. 

The same dossiers would serve the purpose of inviting interns and volunteers. Hence,
highlighting information that might interest that segment like providing certificates as
recognition of their contribution, being able to interact with like-minded individuals, specifically
the directors and executive committee members who also have remarkable industry experience
would serve the purpose of incentives apart from the volunteers being able to partake in
ensuring a better future.

Collating these insights, different dossiers for different initiatives since given the significantly
lower attention spans, individuals can glance over the vertical or initiative that interests them
the best. Initiatives covered were the Green Cover Initiative, the Road Safety Initiative,
Cleanliness Initiative, and the Covid-19 Support Initiative.
Website Design

As a final part of the stakeholder communications project, we designed an outline for the
website by studying websites of other Section 8 companies to understand relevant details that
are expected and good-to-have on the website. Few things kept in mind while designing the
same were ease of access for the user wherever they are on the website, clean navigation,
space for introduction of the organisation and it’s founders, different pages for each of their
initiatives, separate pages for prompts and call-to-action for volunteers and donors, a page for
accessing financial and other reports and lastly a age for upcoming initiatives.
 Sustainable Mobility in Hiranandani Estate

Project Objective:

To understand the perspectives of residents of Hiranandani estate about the sustainable

modes of transportation within Hiranandani Estate and accordingly suggest an alternative
mode of transportation that is most preferred by the residents.

Project need:

India is one of the fastest growing countries in the transportation sector, with one of the
lowest rates of motorization in the world (22 cars per 1,000 people). India faces significant
emission challenges as its transportation industry grows. With 3.82 million vehicles sold in
2019, India is the world's fifth largest automobile market. India's mobility market is expected
to expand rapidly as income rises and urbanisation accelerates. Currently, gasoline or diesel
power 97 percent of Indian vehicles, which has a negative impact on the environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic-caused lockdowns, as well as the slow resumption of transportation

and other services, have highlighted the need for a global transportation system overhaul.
Various cities around the world have begun efforts to embrace a "new normal" for
transportation, with a focus on including pedestrian and cycling facilities in their systems.
India's urban public transportation system cannot afford to revert to the "old normal" of
dealing with traffic and pollution.

Hiranandani Estate is Thane’s largest and finest township with 350+ acres of land. The
township has over 200+ occupied towers, with more than 7000 families residing in it. They
have plans to develop the township further to accommodate the many families who seek to be
a part of the township. Due to a large population residing in this township, the pollution level
has increased tremendously. Considering each family owns at least one vehicle, there will be a
minimum of 7000 vehicles in this township apart from the mass transit vehicles, vehicles
owned by the people commuting to work in the township from outside.

The township is also gaining prominence in terms of the corporate offices coming up in the
area. Companies such as Bayer, TCS, Regus, ICICI bank, we work, Avantor have their corporate
offices in this area. With lockdown related restrictions beginning to ease up and resumption of
work from office, the area will witness a large footfall of professionals working in these offices.
The people working here are expected to travel using private vehicles which will add to the
pollution woes in addition to the traffic congestion in the vicinity. The TCS Olympus campus
has the capacity to accommodate 30,000 employees.
It is therefore the need of the hour that preference be given to alternative eco-friendly modes
of transport and devise ways in which these can be implemented to benefit the residents and
professionals commuting within the Hiranandani Estate.

Problem Statement:

We had identified 3 problem statements for this project which are as follows:

1. Are people residing within Hiranandani Estate open to embrace alternative sustainable
mobility solutions?

2. What are the factors which will influence their choice?

3. What kind of alternatives are they willing to consider?

Need for Conducting the Primary research

In order to get a comprehensive understanding from the residents it was necessary to have
direct interactions with the residents. We chose FGD as we could get an overall idea of what
people think and suggest when they are in discussion with one another. From the FGD a few
areas were highlighted where we could carry out our field surveys. Filed surveys helped to
study the topography of the location and have direct interactions with people in the Estate. A
survey questionnaire was rolled out in order to get responses from maximum no. of residents
from different societies.

Analysis of data and Recommendation.

We evaluated the responses received on all the research methodologies and found out the
common points. We have analysed the data using the three problems as our references and
finding out answers to them. This was used as a basis for recommending the next steps

Issues with Primary Data Collection

It is difficult to engage people for having interactions on the topics. FGD and Interview
methodologies require the respondents to be provides some kind of incentives for their time
allocated. The data collected may not be accurate. The respondent may not be aware about
the subject and without contextual understanding may not provide right responses.

Primary Research:

Focus Group Discussion:

The FGD had 4 participants who were asked several questions on the topic and the discussion
lasted for about an hour. The questions were designed to get the answers for the 3 problems
we had identified for this project. We received positive responses from the participants for
embracing the sustainable modes of transportation within Hiranandani Estate. We also
identified various factors that will influence their decision. Convenience of use, Commute time,
waiting time and travel fare were few factors which came up in the discussion. We also
understood the various alternatives that people are willing to use for commuting within the
society. Few of them are electric buggy, shuttle service and e-rickshaw.

Field Survey:

We conducted a field survey in Hiranandani Estate at Hiranandani Foundation School, Arcadia

and We Work. We collected a total of 54 responses. Through these three locations, we
targeted the people who drop their children to school, those who visit the arcadia for leisure,
shopping or other personal errands and those who commute to the office within Hiranandani
estate for work. We gathered information related to our three problem statements. We found
out that the majority of people were willing to embrace the eco-friendly modes of
transportation within Hiranandani estate. Also, the majority of people visiting the school for
dropping their children used either their personal vehicle or auto-rickshaw. Only a few sections
of these people dropped their children via walking. For the office work, the majority of the
people used their own vehicle to commute.

Majority of the people conveyed that price will be an important factor in influencing their
decision of adopting the alternative mode of transportation. Other factors that were
mentioned include commute time, Frequency and convenience of the transport.

Google Form Survey:

On the basis of the FGD, we rolled out a Google form to the residents of Hiranandani Estate.
The questionnaire had 13 questions and required 3 minutes to fill. The survey received a total
of 260 responses.

Looking at the data analysis of the Google form data received, residents in Hiranandani estate
currently use either their 2-wheeler/4 wheeler or walking as the mode of transportation for
commuting within Hiranandani estate for various purposes like Dropping their children to
school, business/office related work, shopping and leisure activities.

Majority of the respondents have preferred E-rickshaw, Electric buggies and walking as an
alternative mode of transportation within Hiranandani estate. According to the field survey,
we found that when looking into the implementation phase of these alternatives, we need to
take the price of the travel, commute time and frequency of vehicle under consideration.
Through the Google form survey, we also understood that main factors influencing the
residents’ decision to adopt the alternative mode of transportation is reduction of traffic
congestion and parking issues of their own vehicles.

Websites Referred:

1) http://cercenvis.nic.in/PDF/E%20Book%20on%20Sustainable%20Urban%20Transport.pdf

2) https://www.un.org/esa/dsd/susdevtopics/sdt_pdfs/shanghaimanual/Introduction.pdf

3) https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021-
04/FullReport_Status_quo_analysis_of_various_segments_of_electric_mobility-compressed.pdf

4) https://www.itdp.org/2020/06/05/pune-leads-india-toward-a-sustainable-future/

5) https://www.maharashtra.gov.in/Site/Upload/Acts%20Rules/Marathi/Notification%20for
%20Transport%20Policy.pdf

6) https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021-
08/HandbookforEVChargingInfrastructureImplementation081221.pdf
 Learnings from the Internship
This 1 month of We-Care internship was a great learning experience for us. Below are a few
learnings from the three projects that were assigned to us:

1. Step by step procedure to escalate the issues regarding road safety to the higher
authority.
2. Drafting a formal letter to the higher authority, stating the issues and demanding for a
quick action on the same.
3. Different types of issues on the road like the potholes, service roads merging into main
roads, need for zebra crossing, need for traffic signals, illegal parking which can cause
traffic congestion and can be life threatening for travelers as well as pedestrians.
4. Tweeting the issue related to social work.
5. Proper methodology for carrying out a research-based project.
6. Conducting primary research.
7. Conducting secondary research including Focus group discussions, Field surveys and
online surveys.
8. Brainstorming on the problem statements, dependent and independent variables, and
thus deciding on the questionnaire for the online survey.
9. Learned about various government initiatives for implementation of sustainable
mobility in India.
10. Understood various initiatives taken in various countries for the awareness and
implementation of sustainable mobility through various case studies
11. Learned about various alternatives for sustainable mobility and their feasibility within
the gated communities like Hiranandani Estate 
12. Understood various factors that might influence the decision of the residents to adopt
alternative modes of transportation.
 Challenges Faced during the Internship
Our entire internship experience was in an online mode, except for the field work which had to
be conducted offline. The entire internship experience was conducted in a smooth manner,
but there were some challenges which we faced due to the online mode of the internship.

Since Green Ecospace is a relatively new organization, we initially found data collection to be a
challenge for the the dossiers. However, we were also assured by our mentors that the in-
depth particulars would be taken care of by the organisation and the expectation from us was
to come up with an approach and formulate the framework. Further, at a later point in the
internship we also were able to interact with a vertical head and obtain more details about
their past initiatives and future plans.

During our Field survey of the residents of Hiranandani Estate, we were not able to achieve the
target responses due to lack of awareness about the proper timings when maximum people
could be available. We also found it challenging to get responses from the residents for our
survey, without providing prompts for the survey, which may be attributed to either lack of
time or awareness on their part.
 Recommendations for GEF

 Onboarding of interns from other colleges to ensure continuity of major projects

 Onboarding of full-time members on the committee to ensure faster progress
 Focus on all social media handles for uniformity