I dream of carbon-free cities, says Kalam

The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on Tuesday stressed on the need for having carbon-free cities across for happy and healthy living of citizens. Delivering the keynote address at the plenary session of Metropolis World Congress here, Dr. Kalam urged the delegates to deliberate on building carbon-neutral and fossil-free urban conglomerations. “To have carbon-neutral cities is my dream,” he said and hoped that the participants would focus more on building such urban areas.

Urban areas, whether they were smart cities or over-smart cities, should be places for healthy living possible only through adoption of solar power generation methods and non-carbonised environment, he added.

The plenary session also had Carlo Ratti, professor of MIT, Boston, giving a presentation on sensible city and Mayor Johannesburg, Parks Tau focusing on initiatives taken up by the Johannesburg Municipality, according to a press release.

Book release Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday released a book ‘art@telangana’ during the XI Metropolis World Congress. This book comprise works of nearly 150 artists from Telangana State and the art works span a century covering the period of 1914 to 2014.

The book has been published by a non-profitable trust of B. Narsing Rao, filmmaker, Laxman Aeley, artist, Niranjan Reddy, lawyer and B.V. Paparao, former IAS officer, a press release said.