Projects

During Urban Internship Program 2011, interns worked on different projects both at the Urban Unit and at other government departments. Highlights of UIP 2011 are as follow:

Traffic Survey and Land-use Mapping in Sheikhupura:

In the Sheikhupura city, 59 students from Punjab Group of Colleges, Sheikhupura Campus were appointed for technical assistance and advisory services to the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) Sheikhupura, for the classification and reclassification of land uses, solid waste management, master plan and base map of the Sheikhupura Tehsil, and the establishment of the general bus/truck terminal. The interns also completed the data entry of a survey conducted for the employees of the Lahore Waste Management Company. Of these, 36 interns handled the traffic count survey, 15 looked at the transport interview survey and 8 focused on the land use survey.

Communication Strategy:

A dedicated team of 40 interns worked with the Lahore Waste Management Company to conduct an analysis for the company`s internal communication strategy. The primary idea behind developing this communication strategy was to identify the problems of sanitary workers and resolve these for them in order to provide better services to the customers. Four interns each were placed in all of the ten town offices to survey 10,000 workers. The Urban Unit provided the detailed questionnaires in printed form along with all required material. The questionnaires were designed in Urdu to make it easier for the workers to comprehend. The interns completed the survey with dedication and hard work in spite of the bad weather conditions at that time.

Land Use Mapping in Lahore and Kasur City:

Sixty three interns from various universities were appointed to conduct the land use survey for the cities of Lahore and Kasur in order to achieve better planning of these cities in the future. For this assignment, the students visited the assigned areas and marked the existing use of buildings, whether residential of commercial etc on areas specific maps prepared by the Urban Unit.

Interns in various Government Organizations:

Many interns were placed in various government departments.

• Ten interns were placed in the Lahore Waste Management Company office to work in the field and participate in different public awareness campaigns such as “Use Bin Day”, “Waste Free Lahore” and “Monsoon activity”.
• One intern hired by the Local Government & Community Development Department, got an opportunity to gain practical experience about land use and planning towns.
• Twelve interns were placed in the Parks and Horticulture Authority Lahore in its Environment and Public Relations department.
• Similarly 2 interns each were hired by the Punjab Information Technology Board and the Punjab Housing and Town Planning Agency, Lahore.

Interns at the Urban Unit:

The Urban Unit inducted 13 interns for internship at the Unit in different sectors, including Urban Finance, Solid Waste Management, Information Technology, Communications and Urban Economics.

• Two interns were placed in Communication department where they learned about poster making, development of newsletter content and report writing.
• Two interns in Municipal Finance sector learned the preparation of comprehensive reports on assessment of financial reporting, making presentations of financial statements of the local government bodies and finding the gaps in current budgeting practices in the Municipal Finance sector.
• Five interns placed in the Solid Waste Management sector worked on numerous assignments including a comparison between bio gas and composting and the revision of Solid Waste Management practices.
• Two interns worked with the Information Technology team and learned the practical working of HTML, DHTML, CSS, JQUERY, DBMS, php etc.
• Two of the interns worked in Urban Economics sector and researched on the Manufacturing Industries of Lahore, focusing on the performance of major industries within the city and analyzed their role in GDP growth, employment generation, export promotion and the current challenges halting their performance.