Metropolis World Congress to begin on Monday

Over 2,000 delegates including 400 participants from 50 countries will congregate at the XI Metropolis World Congress 2014, which will begin here from October 6.

Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan will inaugurate the Congress on October 7 wherein Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao among other personalities will attend it, Telangana Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma told reporters here on Saturday.

President Pranab Mukherjee will address the valedictory function of the event scheduled on October 9, he said. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam, former Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chief V K Saraswat and Nobel Peace Prize winner Rajendra Pachauri are among the personalities who will address the XI Metropolis World Congress, the theme for which is 'Cities for All'. Mayors of several member cities like Johannesburg, Barcelona, Berlin, Tehran among others, technocrats, administrators and experts will be part of the discussions at the Congress, Sharma added.

Metropolis is a forum to exchange ideas and developments. It is a platform to discuss issues of common interest of cities in terms of development and urban governance, he said.

Created in 1985, the Metropolis Association is represented by more than 130 members from across the world and operates as an international forum for exploring issues and concerns common to all metropolitan regions.

The theme of the Congress, Cities for All, represents the functioning of democracy for all its stakeholders and extends the living city experiences to delegates on four broad sub themes - Urban Equity, Governance, Finance and Urban India, organisers of the event said.

- PTI