Is electric car the right solution for urban India's transportation needs?

Indian government has made a policy decision to promote electric cars over those using petroleum fuels which in due course will be completely phased out. While laudable from the pollution point of view, one would feel that other options have not been studied in arriving at this decision. Some of the objections to widespread use of private transport are:

• Private vehicles are less fuel efficient per commuter compared to public transportation such as buses.

• Road congestion becomes a problem when more private vehicles are used. This is due to the high road area required for a given number of commuters.

• The congestion in turn increases fuel consumption and pollution when petroleum fuels are used. This affects both public and private vehicles alike.

• Parking of private cars in core city areas is increasingly becoming problematic and many cities have to plan expensive parking infrastructure.

Though electric cars overcome the issues of fossil fuel vehicles and the resulting pollution, they need lithium batteries and lithium needs to be imported thus involving forex outgo. The other problems of parking space requirements, congestion and resulting issues are not solved by increased use of cars, even electric cars. In fact, many cities across the world are moving towards providing efficient public transportation in core city areas and discourage private cars. Some have been adopting pay-and-hire pedal bikes, electric scooters and electric cars in place of private transportation.

In my opinion, the best option for our cities is to have electrically operated public transportation. In big cities we already have electric trains and metro rail transportation. Kolkata has electric trams in addition to the above modes. So the emphasis should now be on phasing out petrol/diesel/CNG buses and replacing them with electric buses.

Rather than using battery operated buses, all trunk services should adopt the Bus Rapid Transport system (like Ahmedabad) but with buses running using overhead electric lines in designated lanes. The ticketing system should be automated using pre-paid cards and boarding turnstiles to prevent overcrowding of buses. The stations can also have state of the art passenger information systems and queuing gates for handling multiple routes.

All the required technologies are available and proven in India. The electric bus and overhead electrical infrastructure can be developed easily by partnering companies like BHEL/Tata Motors/Ashok Leyland.

Routes can be planned in a way that a person can reach the desired destination in the city by a maximum of 10 minute walk. The stations on the city outskirts may provide parking and charging stations for electric cars and scooters as well as for bicycles for regular commuters .

You only require political will and a dedicated person like the 'Metro Man' Mr Sridharan for this vision to become a reality. more