Shimla to levy green fee on private vehicles

Get ready to pay a fee to enter the popular hill resort of Shimla. The Shimla Municipal Corporation has decided to impose a green fee on all commercial and private motorised vehicles entering Shimla but not registered in Himachal Pradesh from April 1 this year.  This entry-to-the-city fee would be a onetime levy on all cars, two-wheelers and buses. With this move, Shimla now joins ranks with Manali, which was the first in the state to introduce a similar measure.

Private vehicles eating into scare public land

Spanner on Mumbai's free floor space project

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) project to provide free floor space index (FSI) to builders creating public parking slots has gone all wrong. The builders are exploiting the project to fill their coffers.

We don't smell the air

I smelled the air of Bangalore last week. It was foul. I remembered how in the late 1990s, when Delhi's air was dark and dirty, we had run an advertisement in the newspapers "Roll down the window of your bullet-proof car, Mr Prime Minister, the security threat is not the gun it is the air of Delhi." Since then Delhi introduced compressed natural gas, it increased the number of buses, it got better quality fuel. With all this, the air got less dirty and less toxic. But now with each passing day, the city adds just below 1,000 new private vehicles.

China to observe 'no-car day'; parking fee to be hiked

chinese cities will join the growing band of urban centres around the world to observe 'no-car day'. A Chinese news agency reported that on September 22 automobiles will not be allowed along selected corridors in about 100 Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. People will be encouraged to use public transport, instead. The measure is a part of the government's drive to check the quality of ambient air.

London's parking charges will now be based on emissions

gas-guzzlers in London's Borough of Richmond, in southwest London, will now have to pay hefty parking charges. The Richmond council cleared a plan to introduce emission-based parking charges in the first week of February.

Revisiting economics of congestion

In our December 31, 2006 issue we raised some questions in the editorial, 'Economics of congestion'. Readers responded. Here is a cross section of views Theory-practice hiatus Shreekant Gupta, director National Institute of Urban Affairs New Delhi

Economics of congestion

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (siam) says India produced over 10 million vehicles in 2006. The number of cars was more than one million. As the manufacture and sale of vehicles are important parameters of the national economy, this millionth-vehicle yardstick says the economy's fundamentals are buoyant.

Parking crisis

The Supreme Court (SC) has asked the Delhi government to submit a time-bound plan to deal with Delhi's parking problem by mid-November 2004. It has directed the government to study two reports submitted to the SC by the Environment Protection Control Authority (EPCA). The reports highlight high pollution levels due to vehicular traffic. They warn that if the number of vehicles in the city keeps increasing at the current rate, there would be no parking space left and nearly three fourths of Delhi's roads would remain congested in future.