Andhra Pradesh government has been recommended to go for a green capital to make it truly futuristic.
International expert on sustainable cities Jillella Satya Sai Kumar said on Monday that a sustainable city or a city with environment-friendly technologies and resources was being known as a green city. “The government should explore the technologies used to build Singapore,” he said.
Mr. Kumar, former consultant to UN ESCAP and a researcher at Curtin University (Australia) told The Hindu on the sidelines of an international conference on effects of emissions and effluents on environment (EEEE-2014) here that green city did not mean a Greenfield capital involving huge extent of land.
Appealing to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to consider locally available resources, use of non-conventional energy with proper waste disposal system and building technologies, he said the new capital could be made one of the best cities in the world.
“The new capital should be developed using renewable energy sources to make it carbon-neutral by putting carbon emissions at zero level. It should also be a biophilic city such as Singapore. It should be eco-efficient and a smart city. The character of the city be based on the local culture. Sustainable transport should be the core issue,” he pointed out.
Mr. Sai Kumar said though the construction would involve massive investment, the authorities could explore innovative financing methods by roping in prospective stakeholders who stand to gain by the city’s brand value.
Senior most chief scientist at National Environment Engineering Research Institute C.V. Chalapathi Rao, who also presented a paper at the conference, said the construction of a green capital was an opportunity for the new government post-bifurcation. He said the government could become a trend-setter by developing a smart and sustainable green city as the new capital.
