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Cars
The Nano-flyover syndrome
@sunitanar Issue Date: Feb 15, 2008
Last fortnight, when the world's richest Indian Lakshmi Mittal visited Kolkata, the city of his youth, he was thrilled to see change. Mittal told the media that the biggest difference he saw was the many flyovers dotting the city skyline and "disciplined traffic". This is great progress, he told journalists, who promptly reported that the tycoon had given the city's road and traffic management a big thumbs up. I was also in Kolkata that day. But all I could see was lines and lines of traffic, belching black smoke, honking madly.
We don't smell the air
Issue Date: Sep 30, 2007
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.
Economics of congestion
Issue Date: Dec 31, 2006
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.
Shift to public transport should conserve energy
Issue Date: Jun 30, 2006
■ Public transport needs three times less energy and emits three times less greenhouse gases than private car traffic, says a study for 50 cities worldwide. Energy consumed plunges with more public transport use ■ But in some cities, the share of public transport has shown an increase ■
Oil price hike: quick-fix measures wont work
Issue Date: Jun 30, 2006
Railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu are the clowns of Indian politics. But think of the actions of the two in the past fortnight and you will begin seeing the difference. Sidhu led the protest for the Bharatiya Janata Party against the fuel price hike by riding an elephant. Effective but clearly stupid. Do excuse my intemperate language but the gall of the politicians to believe we are myopic and their complete lack of leadership in this time of crisis makes me mad.
"World class products"
Issue Date: Feb 28, 2005
This last fortnight, after two disparate experiences, I came to realise there is not much difference between colas and cars. Let me explain how.
Cars, more cars
Issue Date: Dec 15, 2004
I recently visited Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. The singular impression I have of all these cities, and of others I occasionally visit -- of course the one I live in, Delhi -- is one of noise, pollution, plastic, garbage and filth. But most of all what hits you is cities overrun by vehicles; cars, more cars. Every city is now bumper to bumper. Even Bangalore, the sanctuary city, is a car-mess.
