Delhi’s new budget allocated 3,069 crore rupees to transport, 31% of the total and the single largest chunk awarded.  Metro construction will account for most of the budget, followed by a raft of road development measures, 23 rail over bridges, 17 road under bridges, 8 flyovers, a new Ring Road bypass and the use of nallahs as new roads and parking lots.  Finally, a fund has been provided for 2,500 new buses for the city to augment the fleet.

Now, given that transport contributes 26% to climate change globally and is the fastest growing source I think it’s important to give this a climate change test.

The first thing to wonder is how all the additional road space is going to help.  The number of vehicles in Delhi has now grown to over 6 million and the expenditure might help to relieve pinch points in the system, for a while at least.  But it doesn’t take much effort to realize that the more road you build the ‘cheaper’ and more convenient it becomes to use your car or motorcycle and the more people who, given a choice, will therefore use it. Congestion and pollution return, only an order of magnitude greater this time round.

In climate change terms this strategy contradicts with Delhi’s effort to augment the bus fleet with another 2,500 high quality vehicles.  The main reason is that public transport is nearly always less convenient than using a car, motorcycle, or even a bicycle over short to medium distances.  You have to walk to the bus stop, wait for an uncertain period, catch at least one bus, but maybe more, walk at the other end and so on.   Making private vehicle use even easier isn’t going to help get us on the bus or Metro. (more…)