The Centre has assessed that India’s transport sector accounts for over 25 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. And given that 30-60 per cent of trips in the country are walkable, while the Centre plans to fully capture this ‘carbon neutral’ potential through appropriate infrastructure development, it has already moved ahead to promote green transportation by financing of electric vehicles as an option to promote urban mobility.
The assessment is the outcome of the three-day Urban Mobility Initiatives (UMI) conference, which ended on Saturday in Hyderabad. According to Secretary (Housing and Urban Affairs) Durga Shankar Mishra, promoting and financing electric vehicles and infrastructure projects is worth it.
Sources said to promote electric vehicles, funds worth Rs 105 crore will be provided to each selected city having population of above 10 lakh (as per 2011 census) in the current financial year 2017-18 for electric buses (maximum 100 per city), electric four-wheeler passenger cars and electric three-wheelers.
As per data, a total number of registered motor vehicles in India were over 21 crore till March 31, 2015. In Delhi, the total number of registered vehicles increased to 1.19 crore till May 2017. There were seven States with more than one crore registered motor vehicles which include Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The transport sector is another major contributor to these high emission levels. Delhi ranks the highest when it comes to transport, perhaps due to the large number of vehicles in the city. The Capital is followed by Bengaluru and Hyderabad respectively.
“Metro rail is the flavour of the season with more and more cities aspiring for it and this needs to be looked at as an opportunity to rewrite transport planning, financing and execution. The new Metro rail policy widely appreciated and innovative financing and non-fare revenue options have to be fully explored to finance metro systems,” Mishra said outlining the importance of Metro systems in urban mobility solutions.
“The urban transport planning needs to acknowledge the right of access to public spaces for the poor and the marginalized. With new paradigms of Urban Mobility and user behaviour emerging, India is moving towards a new normal in terms of urban transportation and these new normal needs to be realized in the quickest possible timeframe, to overcome present mobility constraints,” he said.
Sources said the government is in talks with car makers to explore the viability of leasing electric vehicles and setting up proper supporting infrastructure to promote the use of clean energy vehicles, and shift to EVs completely in about 15 years. An inter-ministerial committee led by Niti Aayog is drawing up the details of the plan to promote usage and convert most vehicles to electric by 2030.