Press Note: March 13, 2009 Cars may drive growth and aspirations, but they can never meet the commuting needs of urban India. Cars choke cities, harm public health and guzzle more oil. More than a half of our cities, especially the smaller ones, are getting smothered by critical levels of pollution and congestion.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (siam) says India produced over 10 million vehicles in 2006. The number of cars was more than one million. As the manufacture and sale of vehicles are important parameters of the national economy, this millionth-vehicle yardstick says the economy’s fundamentals are buoyant.
We never expected public transport to catch the political imagination in the car maniacal city of Delhi. So we were pleasantly surprised by the recent budget of the Delhi government. The transport sector has hogged the biggest pie of the total budgetary allocation – nearly one-fourth of the total plan outlay.
Kill. The ultimate scalpel operation as the final sign of life ebbs away. Let it die, rather than drag a colossal waste. We were probably expecting this to happen. Not just to this state-owned bus transit undertaking in India’s largest state -- Madhya Pradesh -- but to numerous other undertakings that have state governments as their bosses.
Last fortnight, when the world’s richest Indian Lakshmi Mittal visited Kolkata, the city of his youth, he was thrilled to see change. Mittal told the media that the biggest difference he saw was the many flyovers dotting the city skyline and “disciplined traffic”. This is great progress, he told journalists, who promptly reported that the tycoon had given the city’s road and traffic management a big thumbs up. I was also in Kolkata that day. But all I could see was lines and lines of traffic, belching black smoke, honking madly.
What does Barack Obama’s election as president of the us have to do with buses in India? A lot. Obama stands for what he calls ‘change’—in the way we think and do business. But the call will remain rhetoric unless we translate it into practical, everyday life, changes. To do that, we must bring changes in our business model and, most importantly, in what is essential and what needs to be invested in.
The world’s cheapest car, the Nano, rolls out in India this week. Manufacturer Tata Motors says it will change the way Indians drive, for the inauguration places the personal car within the reach of people who once could only dream of owning one. Indeed, the Nano has been marketed as an ‘aspiration’—the right of every Indian to a car. No quibble here. There is no question an affordable car is better than an expensive one; or that a small car, being more fuel efficient, is better than a big one.
New Delhi, June 22, 2009: “Tax our cars, Mr Finance Minister, not our buses”: this is – once again -- the message that Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has for Pranab Mukherjee, as he gets set to present the new government’s first Budget.
The initial 5.8 Km of the Bus Corridor in Delhi became operational on April 20th 2008
The biggest challenge that confronts cities today is the intractable problem of automobile dependence. As the automobile dependence continues to grow, it is adversely affecting the quality of urban life. Congestion, unsafe roads and pollution remain their bane. Unless accompanied by policies to restrict the growth in car and motorised two-wheeler travel, cities will run hard only to stand still.
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) comes out in support of Bureau of Energy Efficiency’s initiative to set fuel economy standards and a labeling programme for cars. Demands immediate implementation as rapid increase in car numbers and steady drift towards bigger cars threaten India’s energy security.
Rich Lands Poor People – released in Rajasthan
EPCA decides on action plan for eight critically polluted cities in India February 5, 2009
International transport expert reviews Delhi BRT: February 7, 2009.