[sustran] Re: "India is on the road to a transport revolution"

[Sunny]

Dear John,

In my opinion if the problem is shipment then it can be fulfilled with 
out building new road and by efficiently using the existing railway 
network or by adding new goods/cargo trains, this can even generate 
income and jobs thereby benefiting the jobless both at the source and 
the destination, expanding our highways and bringing more larger and 
multi-speed gear boxes will only be a burden as they have to be imported 
and their number will be very small for an investment like increasing 
the overall highway structure for which the large truck users might not 
legally contribute anything. On comparison to Bangkok I have recently 
been on road to Chiang Rai, the north of Thailand and to my surprise I 
have not seen even one toll post charging the cars which I am familiar 
with in India and my friend was driving never less than 100 kmph.

Using the railway as I said earlier will reduce the unemployment and 
also the travel time as there will be a pressure for quality on the 
railways, better roads might be a good answer but roads built solely for 
freight will not be a good answer, if anyone is familiar with HIV in 
India it can be found that the HIV cases are more among the lorry 
drivers. I would be thankful if anyone can throw more light on this 
issue, I think Eric would be the one as I have seen him as a moderator 
on GATNET.

Sunny

John Ernst wrote:
> On the serious side -- and, sorry to say, the article was not on the 
> satire page, Eric -- the problems with India building expressways 
> that induce further private motor vehicle use over longer commuting 
> distances are, I think, clear to all.
>
> But here's an anecdote to consider in regards to these highways and 
> freight shipment:
>
> Last year, on a flight from Delhi to Bangkok, I sat next to an 
> American man who was setting up greenhouses in India to grow massive 
> quantities of vegetables for large discount stores that were coming 
> in (the "big box" stores, e.g., Walmart, Lotus, Carrefour).  His 
> biggest problem was the trucking. To make his plan work, he needed to 
> reduce the shipping cost and time.  This meant changing from India's 
> existing trucks to big semi-trucks with multi-speed gearboxes, 
> trained drivers to operate them,... and better roads to accommodate 
> them.  He said the roads were coming.
>
> I'm not prepared to comment on the global economic considerations 
> here, but I think it provides an interesting window into the kind of 
> political pressures behind these expressways.  It's not just the 
> Yohan Poonawallas in their Rolls Royces.
>
> Best,
> John
>
> At 04:21 AM 5/3/2006, Lee Schipper wrote:
>   
>> If Eric liked that he'd LOVE a presentation by the guru of the Delhi
>> Metro. Made up numbers and all!
>>
>>     
>>>>> eric.britton at ecoplan.org 5/3/2006 6:07:23 AM >>>
>>>>>           
>> Dear Sunny,
>>
>>
>>
>> This is a satire, isn't it? The sort of multi-layered complex big fish
>> Indian tale that we of the West are not expected to be able ever to
>> penetrate.  A rich private yarn, is it?
>>
>>
>>
>> If so, it's a real good one. I especially liked the name choice for
>> the
>> "34-year-old scion", Yohan Poonawalla, of Pune nonetheless. And you
>> know
>> the stuff about Mumbai, cows and "people", well that is very refined.
>> As
>> indeed is all the rest.
>>
>>
>>
>> Keep it coming Guardian. Har har har.
>>     
>
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> John Ernst   -  Director, Asia Region
>     ITDP - The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
> Promoting environmentally sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide
>   Visit http://www.itdp.org
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>
>
>
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