Carbon-free cities my dream: Kalam

• 1,100 delegates from 130 countries participate
• Urban areas should be places for healthy living: Kalam
• Carbon-free city could be a forerunner to carbon-free state
• Inaugurating the Congress, ESL appreciates Telangana government’s clean and green agenda
• KCR thanks Centre for promising funds for the development of new State

Hyderabad: Former President APJ Abdul Kalam on Tuesday stressed the need to have carbon-free cities across the globe for happy and healthy living of citizens.

Delivering the keynote address at the plenary session of the XI World Metropolis Congress, Kalam suggested that the delegates deliberate on building carbon-neutral and fossil-free urban conglomerations. He said to have carbon-neutral cities was his dream. “Whether smart cities or over-smart cities, the urban areas should be places for healthy living," Kalam said adding that healthy living was possible only if we adopted methods of generating solar power and create non-carbonised environment."

The growing migration to urban areas posed challenge in the creation of clean environment, he said. About 1,100 delegates from 130 countries registered for the conference, a great record for the new State of Telangana
Recalling his recent visit to Chandigarh, the former President said the city was built by a Swiss architect and an expert urban planner and there were several points that could be learnt from it.

Stressing the need for healthy living, the former President said that healthy living was possible only if one adopted methods of generating solar power to create non-carbonised environment. Quoting the example of Naggarapatta (a town in Maharashtra near Pune) where 126 farmers pooled 400 acres of land and developed residential and commercial projects by forming a private company to yield the benefits, he exhorted people across the globe to emulate them.

Carbon free city would be a forerunner to a carbon-free state, he added. The major challenge was to ensure environmental sustainability and the growing migration to urban areas poses a challenge. The government of India has a mission of developing 100 smart cities and there would be ample opportunity for private sector, he said.

Governor E S L Narasimhan, who declared the conference open, said that the need of the hour was satellite townships, making rainwater harvesting compulsory and improve public transport in a big way. He appreciated the Telangana government for its clean and green agenda.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said that the urban population in Telangana state would cross 40 per cent and the government was keen on developing the state with sustainable growth. He also thanked the Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu for assuring support for the development of the new state.
Rao thanked the Centre for assuring that it would fund the scheme on digitization of property details. He said Hyderabad had shown the way.

‘Sustainable Hyderabad Report’, ‘City Management Services – Waste Management’ and ‘Financing Urban India’ were some of the key areas on which the Congress deliberated on the second day.

Carlo Ratti, Professor of MIT, USA, Parks Tau, Mayor of Johannesburg, South Africa, and Dr Saraswat also participated in the proceedings.