The rapid growth in India’s urbanization, population and wealth over the last few decades has had a marked effect on the mobility of its citizens. India’s transport demand has grown by almost 8 times since 1980 – more than any other Asian economy. This large growth has been positive in many ways, including development of a thriving auto industry and allied economic growth. However, there are a set of challenges to be addressed.

Challenges

• A recent WHO study has fourteen Indian cities featuring in the top fifteen most polluted cities in the world. This challenge leads to significant health and welfare losses, currently estimated by the World Bank at 7.7% of India’s GDP (PPP adjusted). 
• Additionally, major Indian cities are also now consistently ranked amongst the world’s most congested cities.The average speed for vehicles in some metros are reported as low as 17 km/h.
• These high levels of congestion have huge cost in form of reduced productivity and fuel waste;
• A high-level estimate of the economic loss of congestion, for our top four metros, is over USD 22 billion annually .

Government Efforts

• It is worthy to note that multiple efforts – at the city, state and national level – have been made to alleviate these challenges.
• For rural India, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is perhaps the best example. The reinvigoration of this scheme in the last 3 years has led to record highs of building all-weather roads at a rate of 130 km/day.
• For urban India, in order to address the twin challenges of pollution and congestion, a number of initiatives have been launched.
• At the national level, multiple policies such as the National Urban Transport Policy & the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 have been designed as well.

NITI Aayog has given a holistic framework for ‘Transforming India’s Mobility’, as detailed in the figure.

3C Approach- NITI Aayog

The crown of the framework defines the overall objectives (3C)

• Clean: Pollution-free, leading to clean air and hence better health and living standards
• Convenient: Seamless, safe, affordable, accessible for all sections including the elderly & disabled and connected – both in terms of technology as well as connecting key rural and urban centers
• Congestion-free: Minimum congestion levels, and hence enhanced economic efficiency

To achieve the objectives, following action-agenda is advocated around four key pillars, Outlined in the figure above, namely,

(a) Connect Bharat,
(b) Optimize travel footprint,
(c) Promote seamless, co-operative transport, and
(d) Adopt green modes and technologies.
These pillars have to be well supported by a common set of enablers – Skills and employment, Intelligent Transport Systems, Public Awareness, Governance and Financing.

If the suggested 3C approach along with key pillars and enablers is executed effectively, the results can be transformative for India’s mobility landscape. Improvement in rural connectivity can help in increased connectivity of villages with high adoption of public transport. PM2.5 emissions can reduce significantly across Indian cities. Additionally, the speed on arterial roads of major cities can be improved significantly. This holistic advancement should support India to have a target mobility landscape that is Clean, Convenient & Congestion free.