The scenario is grim. Urban planners are scratching their heads over the dystopian path our cities and towns are drifting towards. Traffic snarls have become commonplace while pollution destroys the city and the urban infrastructure fails to deliver.

   City planners would also like to make sure that life on the Earth remains sustainable and resources are not used up at a pace that makes it difficult to sustain life on our planet. To ensure sustainable living with clean air, we have to make judicious use of the nonrenewable resources which are of economic value and cannot be readily replaced by natural means on a level equal to its consumption.

    Most fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal are considered nonrenewable resources in that their use is not sustainable as their formation takes billions of years. Today, close to 84% of the total amount of energy used globally comes from fossil fuels. To check this, the urban....