pollution in some cities of India due to transport

 Urban commuting has become one of the most energy- and pollution-intensive activities in India, contributing to increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Differences in performance of India’s cities regarding transport related pollution:-

The parameters considered for understanding the differences across cities include

• Level of motorization
• Travel demand based on population
• Share of different modes of transport (public transport, walking, cycling, and personal vehicles)
• Average length of daily travel trips
• Quality of vehicle technologies and fuels.

Emissions:-

• Delhi ranks the worst in terms of overall toxic emissions, heat-trapping emission and energy consumption.
• This is despite the fact that most of its parameters are better than most other megacities, such as rate of trip generation, average trip length and public transport share.
• The reasons are the highest vehicle stock and relatively higher population than other megacities.
• Sheer effect of population, volume of travel and highest vehicle stock eclipses the benefits of having CNG, and better travel parameters than other cities, and thus Delhi comes out to be the worst in terms of total emissions per day.
• Overall emissions may be lower in smaller cities such as Chandigarh and Lucknow due to lower volume of travel and vehicles, but may still have very unsustainable pattern of travel due to high per-trip emission due to high car usage

Emissions per trip are high:-

• Though cities like chennai have lesser number of vehicles than Delhi, higher trip rate, trip lengths and decreasing share of public transport in urban commuting means their emissions per trip are high, and worse than Delhi.
• It means, as population increases in these cities and they sprawl further, air pollution, carbon emissions and energy consumption will get far worse, leaving behind Delhi.
  Among the 14 cities, Bhopal emits the lowest and guzzles fuel the least during urban commuting. Hence, the city has the lowest particulate, CO2 and nitrogen oxide load from urban commute.
• While lower population, much lesser vehicle numbers and vehicle miles travelled compared to the megacities work to its advantage, the city has taken early action to improve its public transport usage.
• One of the biggest advantages of the city is a very high share of walking and cycling. It has also initiated a public bike-sharing programme.

Diverse public transport:-

• When it comes to overall emissions and energy consumption, Kolkata ranks sixth among all the 14 cities but emerges the least energy-guzzling and GHG-emitting megacity.
• It has the most diverse public transport systems for urban commuting, does better than even some metropolitan cities such as Pune and Ahmedabad.
• Kolkata also has the lowest vehicle stock among the megacities and second highest share of public transport. This proves that early investment in diverse and connected public transport and physical restraints can help.
• Mumbai’s overall energy consumption and emissions are comparatively lower as its suburban rail, which has zero local emissions, meets 52 per cent of the travel demand.
• Kolkata and Mumbai also have the lowest per-trip emission among 14 cities. This indicates a high modal share of public transport and non-motorised transport with low trip length.

Way forward:-

The CSE study recommends setting time-bound targets for improving modal share of public transport and linking funding strategies with reforms in public transport sector.
Besides implementing measures for discouraging personal vehicle usage through parking policy, low emissions zones approach, and congestion pricing, both metropolitan and megacities need to integrate urban mobility strategies with clean fuels and fuel-efficient vehicle technologies.

By: SONAM SHEORAN