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As someone who grew up in New Delhi, I think the government has taken quite a few steps like passing laws that require all public transport to run only on CNG,
by j0e1 10y ago
As someone who grew up in New Delhi, I think the government has taken quite a few steps like passing laws that require all public transport to run only on CNG, mandating industries to be positioned outside the city and more recently having policies to curb number of cars on the road. But the problem of pollution never seemed to improve. Optimistically I've told myself that if those measures weren't taken we would have been in a worse position much earlier. Though that does little good in the long run. Unless action is taken to effect negative growth to pollution I think anything you do won't quite cut it.
To be fair though, like in any Indian metropolitan, there is immense pressure on the infrastructure that takes solving such problems to the next level. The sheer growth in population(primarily due to immigrants from other parts of India) on a daily basis would put any government in a quandary.
- rahulsidhu 10y agoI can distinctly remember the air quality in Delhi improving drastically when the public transportation moved to CNG and the metro started operating in the early 00s. Over time though, the policy of building more roads rather than focussing on public transport has led to both congestion and pollution problems worsening. I am optimistic that once the peripheral highways are completed and metro phase 3 is operational, air quality will improve.
- X86BSD 10y agoHaving been to Delhi that does not seem to be enforced or effective. There are still petrol stations all over. And the pollution is still appalling.
- j0e1 10y agoPetrol station are still there and they are legal. Only the public transport like the government run buses and the private taxis/auto rickshaws are those required to run on CNG. And I would venture to say that 100% of them do, mainly because it is less than half the cost of petrol. In fact, a number of car owners are moving to CNG too for the same reason.
- marvindanig 10y agoWhy doesn't the Indian government speak to Tesla Motors/Solar City? They can help you zero down on traffic/power generation related pollution completely. Indian engineers are smart people and given that much of EV technology is now proven and even open source!, I think it will make sense for the people there to adopt alternative tech. Have you tried talking to Tesla to open up R&D center with Tatas/Mahindras/whoever? I do sense that corruption and its acceptance among citizenry is still going to be a major impediment but then it might just work. The only challenge would probably be to manufacture at scale and keep the car costs low to fit the average budget there. But then India does get more than its fair share of tropical sun! :-)
- blackoil 10y agoCost, most cars sold in India are less then 8000 USD. Tesla won't make any sent here. Solar is now coming up motivated by poor infrastructure, particularly in remote/rural areas
- marvindanig 10y agoOh that's a lot of money! New Delhi should explore this idea then!