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

Alan Howes Alan.Howes at cbuchanan.co.uk
Thu May 4 05:42:03 JST 2006


The problem is balance - or lack of it. India almost certainly does need new transport infrastructure, but investment in road needs to be balanced with investment in rail (though there is of course the new Konakan railway that I know of).  And the existing system needs to be properly managed.
 
There seems to be a decided disjoint between building these new roads and the new National Urban Transport Policy (on which there seems to have been surprisingly little comment on this list - not a single follow-up to my comments).  NUTP seems quite clear about the need for sustainability, whereas the policy described in the Guardian article pays no regard at all to sustainability.
 
Regards, Alan
 
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Alan Howes
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________________________________

From: sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.org on behalf of Sunny
Sent: Wed 03/05/2006 15:04
To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport
Subject: [sustran] Re: "India is on the road to a transport revolution"



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.
>>    
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 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
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
>
>
>
> ================================================================
> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus is on urban transport policy in Asia.
>
>  



================================================================
SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus is on urban transport policy in Asia.



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