ADB Awards Transport Competition Prizes for India, Philippine Videomakers

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has awarded prizes in its youth transport video competition to one young filmmaker from India and another from the Philippines.

Sarath Kuttikkatuparambil Thilakan won the ADB Judges’ Choice Award for a video titled “Mumbai Promise” that examined transport issues such as congestion, noise, and air pollution in the Indian city of Mumbai. He noted that these problems would only worsen with rising migration to cities unless planners take a sustainable approach including public transport.

#ADBAreWeThereYet Mumbai_Transport from sarath kt` on Vimeo.

Meanwhile, a Philippine filmmaker James Tad Patrick Bardon, currently based in Japan, won the People’s Choice Award based on social media “likes” for his piece entitled “The Case of Kitazaki”. His film showcased the difficulties of connectivity in a remote, rural town and called for public transport as an alternative to more cars on the road.

“Both filmmakers showed a deep and impressive understanding of the broad issues related to transport today and the need to make future transport accessible to everyone, affordable, efficient, sustainable, safe, and environmentally friendly,” said Tyrrell Duncan, Technical Advisor (Transport) at ADB. “Clearly, it is time to change the ways we choose to get to destinations near and far.”

The ADB competition, “Are We There Yet? Our Journey to a Sustainable Future”, held between 16 May and 19 August was open to people aged between 18 and 25 years old. It aimed to prompt young people to consider the best way of tackling the issue of rising car use, traffic jams, air pollution, and other problems related to current modes of transport.

Currently, transport is the second largest source of most carbon dioxide emissions around the world and city streets are becoming increasingly crowded and dangerous with an average 120,000 people per day migrating to Asia’s towns and cities.

Mr. Thilakan and Mr. Bardon both travelled to ADB headquarters here in Manila to show their videos to attendees at the Bank’s biennial Transport Forum 2016 and to receive their awards.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, ADB in December 2016 will mark 50 years of development partnership in the region. It is owned by 67 members – 48 from the region. In 2015, ADB assistance totaled $27.2 billion, including cofinancing of $10.7 billion.