How India is getting gas and coal policy wrong

Two monopolies. One private and the other public; one in gas and one in coal. Both equally disastrous for the environment. I speak here of Reliance Industries Ltd and Coal India Ltd.

Desperate for gas

BAWANA IN NORTHWEST DELHI is a telling stop on India’s winding and elusive gas trail. About 35 km from the city centre, Bawana is where the Delhi government is setting up a 1,500 MW power plant that will meet a fifth of the capital’s voracious energy needs. The state-owned generating company, Pragati Power Corporation Ltd (PPCL), is forking out Rs 4,500-crore to set up this gas-fired plant in two modules of 750 MW each, the first of which has been ready for a while. However, despite severe power cuts in recent weeks, the plant has remained idle. There is no fuel to run it

Small car revolution Who cares about congestion, pollution

Small cars have had it good for quite a while, but the market could undergo a drastic transformation with the advent of ultra-cheap, small cars led by the Tatas' Rs 1 lakh model.

Private vehicles eating into scare public land

small in size, big problem

The Western world has come a long way in its drive to reduce air pollution from vehicles. Just over a decade back, the focus was on total suspended particulate matter (which includes natural dust too) and the black smoke vehicles emitted. Epidemiological evidence made governments shift the focus to respirable particles (particles smaller than 10 micron).

Manufactured Chaos

As governance formally surrendered the administration of Delhi to chaos on All Fools' Day, April 1, 2001, the fate of its citizens' health and public transport continued to hang in balance. Ministers and politicians had a field day blaming each other for the chaos and rioting that broke out on April 3.

The CNG sabotage

Sabotage

The past five months have been incredible. When we launched our campaign for clean air in 1996, with the publication of the book, Slow Murder , we had no idea that we were entering into a realm of high intrigue and deception. In all our years of public work, we had never seen such powerful vested interests at work, and indeed the lengths and depths they are prepared to go to compromise public health.

Delhi to go greener

Ambitious as it may sound, but Delhi plans to run its buses on biogas. In collaboration with the Swedish government, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy plans to set up a biogas plant inside Kesopur Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) complex in West Delhi. The plant will receive raw gas emitted by the STP and upgrade it so that it can be used to propel vehicles.

Four-stroke complements CNG

VEHICLES and fuels must be seen as a system and not in isolation. Even a clean fuel like CNG may emit high air pollutants if the vehicle engine technology is inefficient to burn the fuel. This is the message from the first detailed testing of CNG three-wheelers in Delhi by researchers from University of British Columbia, Canada.