Concrete jungles

It is not only Delhi but all metros that are becoming high-rise, dense, concrete jungles (“From verdant city to vertical slum,” Sept. 18). Planners are misguided by the campaign that cities are the “engines of growth.” There is no economic growth in real terms in cities. Crores of rupees are spent on creating townships with inadequate infrastructure facilities, which can actually be substituted with simple and cost-effective solutions.

R. Ramanujam,

Chennai