Kanpur is the largest city in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It is spread over an area of 260 sq km with a population of 25.51 lakh. The population is expected to increase to 48 lakhs by 2030 which amounts to adding a whole new Kanpur in 30 years. Even though it had originally grown as an industrial town, manufacturing is shrinking in this city. The city has strength in terms of heavy usage of cycling and walking but due to neglect the city is losing this advantage. Air pollution levels are one of the highest in the country.
Chandigarh is one of the most planned towns of India. This is also one of the richest cities witnessing spurt in personal transport leading to problems of congestion, inadequate parking and air pollution. This city needs to scale up its public transport systems to handle the situation.
Supreme Court order upholds diesel price hike for bus corporations, but ignores the subsidy still enjoyed by cars, SUVs. What happens to the right of the majority to have affordable, reliable and comfortable bus service?
The pilot project on electric, hybrid buses for public transport looks more like a friendly nudge to industry to find 'real business' for a very expensive technology concept. Green steps without green target is a bad idea
For growing economies the stress has to be on patterns of natural resource use and not on the status of natural resources; that is, dealing with the causes rather than the symptoms of the problem of climate change. The time has come for rapidly growing Asia to distinguish between the global, regional and national aspects of climate policy, recognize the linkages and shape the deliberations for the new climate regime by taking substantive measures at home.