Smart City to Promote Harmony with Nature: Venkaiah Naidu

In his address at the Convocation of The Energy Research Institute (TERI) in Delhi, Mr Naidu called for "reorientation" of urban designing and planning approaches that promote such a harmony.

 

Elaborating on this, Mr Naidu said that climate change concerns need to be factored in urban development strategies and action plans.

 

"In my view, more than resource constraint, what is more important and challenging is the efficient management of available limited resources like land and harmonising our developmental aspirations with ecological concerns," he said.

 

Referring to the air pollution level in the capital, he said, "With the introduction of CNG-based public transport, things have improved somewhat, but much more is still to be done."

 

Taking on the municipal bodies, he said, "most of our urban local bodies are inadequate to the challenges of spatial and technical planning and execution. In the context of our contemporary initiatives for urban sector, we intend to address the issue of capacity building of our urban local bodies in a very focused manner."

 

However, he assured the gathering that climate issues are central to the UD Ministry's initiatives.

 

"Our objective is to minimise adverse impact on climate through building efficient transport infrastructure that promotes increased use of urban transport, scientific management of municipal solid waste and sewerage targeting zero discharge," he said.