India is moving from broad heat-mitigation guidance towards targeted urban interventions through a 12-city pilot under AMRUT 2.0. The “Building Heat Resilient Cities: A Strategic Pilot for Urban India” covers Bengaluru, Bhopal, Dehradun, Ghaziabad, Gwalior, Gurugram, Guwahati, Jodhpur, Ludhiana, Nashik, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam. Its mandate is to scientifically assess urban heat mitigation, identify the principal drivers of heat stress, map priority heat-vulnerable areas and develop city-specific recommendations for urban greening, water-sensitive planning, passive cooling and other adaptation measures.
The pilot places measurement before intervention. This is significant because the programme is not designed around a single citywide cooling measure. Instead, participating cities are expected to establish where heat stress is concentrated, identify the populations most exposed to it and then select interventions suited to those locations.
Mapping where the heat is concentrated
Gurugram provides the clearest picture of how this process is being implemented. Before interventions begin, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram is required to undertake a city level baseline assessment of heat stress, including an urban heat island assessment and spatial mapping of heat hotspots against vulnerability layers. The exercise is intended to identify socio-economically vulnerable populations facing the highest heat risk. Ludhiana has similarly begun mapping its highest-temperature hotspots using satellite imagery, drone footage and ground sensors, with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) steering the heat assessment. The assessment therefore establishes the baseline through spatial heat data rather than relying on a single citywide temperature reading. It also creates a basis for deciding where physical interventions should be concentrated.
From heat maps to selected buildings and neighbourhoods
The next stage is intervention selection. Under the Gurugram framework, the municipal corporation is required to identify two to three short ,medium or long term interventions and establish an impact assessment framework for selected wards or sectors. The proposed interventions include cool and green roofs on residential and public buildings, shaded public areas, hydration points and public toilets, along with the revival of traditional water bodies and other nature-based measures. Weather-monitoring systems are also part of the planned package.
Ludhiana's proposed interventions similarly include retrofitting public buildings with reflective cool roofs, developing urban forests on vacant government land and introducing heat-safe construction measures for facilities such as schools, parks and marketplaces. The city also plans shaded cooling shelters, water stations and green bus stops. This gives the pilot a more specific physical footprint: buildings, wards, public spaces, water bodies and other urban assets become potential components of a heat-resilience programme.
The 12 participating cities are backed by ₹5 crore each from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the pilot, according to the implementation details reported for Gurugram. Gurugram's project is structured as a 15-month programme. The funding is linked to implementation milestones. The civic body must submit an intervention plan and budget to NIUA, following which MoHUA approval triggers the release of funds in milestone based tranches. The municipal corporation is responsible for identifying, planning and executing the interventions, while NIUA anchors the heat-island assessments, capacity building and reporting to MoHUA. The funding model therefore connects the technical assessment to an actual municipal delivery mechanism rather than treating heat mapping as a standalone research exercise.
Measuring whether cooling measures work
The pilot also builds measurement into implementation. In Gurugram, the selected wards or sectors will undergo before and after assessment through an impact-assessment framework. The city is also required to report progress and impact information as part of the project structure. That approach is relevant to cool roofs in particular. A roof coating can be installed relatively quickly, but its value as urban infrastructure depends on whether the intervention produces measurable changes in heat exposure and building conditions at the locations where it is deployed.The building component also sits within an existing energy-efficiency framework. The Eco Niwas Samhita establishes minimum building-envelope performance standards aimed at limiting heat gains in cooling-dominated climates while supporting natural ventilation and daylighting. The framework provides a technical basis for addressing heat through building design rather than relying entirely on mechanical cooling.
A broader urban infrastructure test
The AMRUT 2.0 pilot is also being introduced against a wider record of urban heat-mitigation investment. MoHUA reported in July 2026 that AMRUT and AMRUT 2.0 had together approved 4,171 park projects covering 18,168 acres, of which 3,458 parks covering 11,119 acres had been developed. It also reported 2,960 approved waterbody projects, with 1,104 completed, alongside 346 completed green-mobility projects covering 473 km of pedestrian, walking and cycling tracks.
The new 12-city pilot adds a more explicit heat-risk assessment and measurement framework to these interventions. Its sequence is straightforward: map heat, identify vulnerable locations and populations, select interventions, fund implementation and measure the outcome.
That makes the pilot a test not simply of whether cities can install cool roofs or expand green and blue infrastructure, but whether these measures can be selected and deployed according to measured urban heat conditions. If the 12-city exercise produces repeatable methods for linking heat data with specific buildings, neighbourhoods and municipal interventions, passive cooling can move from a planning recommendation towards a measurable component of urban infrastructure.
