[sustran] Spending under JNURM encouraging priavte transport: Study

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.newkerala.com/news/2011/worldnews-77064.html

Spending under JNURM encouraging priavte transport: Study
New Delhi, Sep 28 : A study carried out by the Centre for Science and
Environment has found that 70 per cent of the funds under the Jawaharlal
Nehru Urban Renewal Mission(JNURM) have been spent on widening roads and
flyovers which has encouraged vehicular and long-distance transport,
ultimately leading to more emission of harmful gases.

The findings of the study were presented at a seminar on 'Clean and
Sustainable Mobility: An Agenda for Reform' here today.

After roads and flyovers, the major amount of the JNURM funds have gone to
construction of multi-level parking for personal car owners, which was again
a great incentive for multiplication of motorised vehicles and disincentive
for taking to public transport.

CSE director Sunita Narain said the government has fiscal stimulus to the
Bus industry during the global crisis, and did not bail out the car
industry, which was the right policy, but still the measures taken to
encourage public transport which was affordable and easily affordable were
not adequate.

The CSE calls for early declaration of road map for vehicle emissions for
the post 2010 period.

India implemented the Auto Fuel policy for 2005-10 under which 13 cities
implemented Bharat Stage 1V and the rest of the country Bharat Stage 11
emissions standards in 2010, but so far no efforts have been made for
setting the emission standards for the period 2010 to 2020.

The adoption of such standards was urgently needed in view of the fact that
vehicle production was expected to expand phenomenally in the country in the
coming decades, says CSE.