CSE organised a public dialogue (February 2009) in the city. Titled ‘Clearing the air: An agenda for action’, it brought together policy makers, experts and civil society groups, to discuss how a road-map for pollution control in the city, which has recently seen strong action from the judiciary to contain its rising air pollution.
The Union ministry of urban development has evolved a system for evaluating urban transportation services in cities across India.
Kolkata is on warring path to free its roads from the extremely polluting two-stroke three-wheelers that use a noxious cocktail of dirty and waste fuels as lubricant. The High Court has cracked whip to ensure that its orders to phase out and replace them with cleaner four-stroke three wheelers on clean fuels like LPG are implemented. Kolkata now joins the league of other Indian and Asian cities that have taken similar measures to address the pollution from these vehicles and to ensure that this important inter-mediate public transport are clean.
Nascent policy action has begun in some small and big cities of India to move away from car centric development.