New Delhi Highlighting its inability to support increasing number of metro projects, the Centre has asked state governments to follow the models of Karnataka and Delhi for financing capital-intensive Metro rail projects by levying cess on residential and commercial developments, and increasing house tax. It has also urged them to set up state-level urban transport funds with such levies to finance the projects.

The Centre says its unable to support the increasing number of metro systems through the Budget and therefore wants the states to develop their own funding sources to part-finance such capital-intensive systems.

Many projects in the country may be languishing because of land acquisition problems but the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) has over the past three years acquired 70 per cent of the 10,000 hectares it requires to construct exclusive railway lines for goods traffic. The area acquired is more than half as large as the 18,500-hectare Kolkata metropolitan city.

UN report rates Mumbai, Kolkata as below average

Three big cities — Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore — have been rated below average compared to other mega cities in Asia-Pacific in terms of keeping pollution levels in check, said a report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Delhi is the only Indian city featured in the average category. The Asia-Pacific Human Development Report 2012 titled One Planet to Share: Sustaining Human Progress in a Changing Climate today came out with a green ranking of 22 cities in the Asia-Pacific

Dismiss discoms' claim; accuse regulator of inaction

The mood was belligerent at a public hearing organised by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission here on Thursday to assess consumer feedback before finalising the new power tariff. Reacting to the discoms' demands for a power tariff hike, angry consumers not only dismissed their claims but also expressed dismay over what they alleged was DERC's “inaction”.

Cities in India are dreaming of becoming New York and London but we seldom worry about as basic an issue as sewage and its disposal in our country. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has brought out a two-volume book titled Excreta Matters: Report on the State of India’s Environment to highlight how only 20 per cent of sewage is being treated in the country. Sunita Narain, director general, CSE, talks about the murky issue plaguing the water sources in this interview to Rashme Sehgal.

The British Minister of State, department of energy and climate change, Mr Gregory Barker, said on Friday that the London Olympics 2012 would be the “greenest Olympics ever.”

“We want to raise the benchmarks for Olympics Games,” Mr Barker said promising to keep the carbon footprint to the minimum. The British Minister was addressing a UK-India partnership programme in Kolkata for developing fiscal instruments for climate friendly industrial development in West Bengal, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

India's first genetically engineered (GE) drought-resistant rice variety has been developed in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

Developers dejected as govt rules out repeal of Urban Land Ceiling Act

The promise of Ma, Mati, Manush governance by Mamata Banerjee may fall short of the second M-word, meaning land — at least for real estate developers in the state’s capital city. For, the West Bengal government has now decided to bring in an amendment to the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act (ULCA), 1976, an eyesore of developers for quite some time.