For Professor Nimish Biloria, the question has always been the same: how do you make cities work better for the people who live in them? As Professor of Urban Systems and Health at the UTS School of Architecture, Nimish has spent his career at the intersection of spatial design, urban infrastructure and human wellbeing, asking not just how cities are built, but who they are built for and what they leave behind.
Olympic legacies, urban futures: bridging two nations through sport
This question drew him to consider one of the most consequential urban planning challenges of our time: what happens to a city after it hosts the Olympic Games?
"Major sporting events are powerful catalysts for urban transformation. They can regenerate entire precincts, create new economic corridors and fundamentally reshape how a city moves and breathes. But only if you plan for legacy from the very beginning, not as an afterthought," Nimish said.
Recently, Nimish was awarded funding from the Maitri Grant Program to strengthen Australia–India collaboration on developing sustainable sports infrastructure and urban legacy. The project will bring together leading universities, planning institutes and urban development organisations from Australia and India to explore how major sporting events can create lasting benefits for cities, communities and economies.
"This project is about creating the conditions for genuine peer-to-peer learning between two countries at very different but equally exciting stages of their Olympic journey. Australia is in the middle of delivering Brisbane 2032. India is planning for 2036. The timing could not be more perfect," Nimish said.
Major sporting events are powerful catalysts for urban transformation. They can regenerate entire precincts, create new economic corridors and fundamentally reshape how a city moves and breathes. But only if you plan for legacy from the very beginning, not as an afterthought.
Drawing on Australia’s experience with Olympic and Commonwealth Games planning, the team will hold knowledge exchange workshops, site visits, and develop multi-disciplinary practitioner networks in both countries to help realise India’s sports infrastructure ambitions, including long-term thinking around venue design, legacy planning, urban regeneration and community integration.
“We are fortunate to be able to benefit from the experience of many partners who’ve worked directly on Olympic Games planning, urban renewal and professional practice,” Nimish added.
About the project
Over two years, the partnership will engage around 40 planning professionals, researchers, administrators and industry experts each year through a program of eight major knowledge exchange events, including four in-person international exchanges and four virtual bilateral workshops.
In Australia, participants will visit Sydney Olympic Park, active Brisbane 2032 construction and venue sites, and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games legacy precincts, engaging directly with the planners, designers, and policymakers who shaped them.
In India, the program will take the Australian delegation to Gujarat's emerging sports enclave, Delhi's Commonwealth and Asian Games legacy sites, IIT Roorkee's AMRUT Centre for Urban Planning, and CEPT University, bringing Australian expertise into direct conversation with India's Olympic infrastructure ambitions on the ground.
“Using insights from Olympic urbanism, flexible venue design and existing governance models, we will examine how to optimise the economic and social returns of sports infrastructure investment,” Nimish explained.
Key outputs will include a comprehensive design guidelines document for sports infrastructure, case study reports on Olympic legacy models, technical briefs on sports urbanism and a series of policy bulletins distributed to more than 500 planning professionals across Australia and India.
"We also expect to identify new market opportunities for Australian planning expertise in India, targeting more than $100 million in potential Olympic infrastructure projects, and more importantly, building the long-term institutional relationships that will keep Australian and Indian planners working together long after this project ends," Nimish added.
Using insights from Olympic urbanism, flexible venue design and existing governance models, we will examine how to optimise the economic and social returns of sports infrastructure investment.
The project's crowning legacy ambition is the establishment of a permanent annual Australia–India Sports Planning Forum, to be formally launched in Year 2, alongside new joint research initiatives and student exchange programs between UTS and IIT Roorkee.
"What excites me most is that ten years from now, when India is hosting the 2036 Games, there will be Indian planners and Australian planners who have worked together, learned from each other and built something lasting," Nimish said.
About the team
This project brings together researchers from across UTS, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and CEPT University in India and project partners including:
Prof. Nimish Biloria (Project Lead), Prof. Jua Cilliers, Dr Mukesh Ray, A/Prof. Bhuva Narayan, Prof. Arindam Biswas (IIT Roorkee, India), Navjeet Gaurav (IIT Roorkee), Rutul Joshi (CEPT University, India), Anil K. Roy (CEPT University, India), G.R. Aloria (Ex-Chief Secretary, Gujarat, India), Dyan Currie Associates (Project Partner), Sydney Olympic Park Authority (Project Partner), Planning Institute of Australia (Project Partner).