Narain releases State of India’s Environment 2017, an annual publication from Down To Earth magazine, at the Jaipur Literature Festival
Buses provide the bulk of public transport services in many Indian cities. Its share in daily travel in bigger cities can be as high as 40-60 per cent. Cities are looking at bus transport reforms to reduce auto mobile dependence, congestion, and pollution. Cities like Delhi are setting such high targets as 80 per cent public transport share by 2020, but such a goal can be met only if bus transport is scaled up.
Liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother who were killed in a fratricide incident had another business not widely known. Ponty had recently acquired the concession to run public transport buses in Delhi. His company had won the bids for three clusters with a combined fleet of 600-odd vehicles. Now questions are being asked about who will run the business.
I write this stuck in traffic. Nothing unusual. But my location makes me realise, once again, how our highway route to progress is going nowhere. The road I am using is newly commissioned and expensive. It is the 28-km Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, which was built just a few years ago to take care of the explosion of traffic between the two cities. It is access-controlled, with a 32-lane toll plaza, and was to provide easy access and a fun ride. The concessionaire—built as it is under the famous public private partnership model—took all steps to keep it prized for cars.
CSE's latest book in its Right to Clean Air Campaign series. We have more roads and flyovers than ever before to address our transportation worries. But our cities continue to be gridlocked, with traffic at a virtual standstill as private vehicles hugely outnumber our public transport options. It is time to set new terms of action, make our cities more walkable, review our pollution and congestion control strategies…