In an effort to curb the rapid dieselisation, the Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) has called for a proposal to impose both a one time green tax on new cars and also reintroduce the system of owners paying an annual tax on diesel cars.

The EPCA describes this as “an annual environment compensation charge amounting to 2 per cent of the purchase value of a petrol car and 4 per cent of the purchased value of a diesel car.” The second tax they want levied is an “environment compensation charge of 25 per cent of the sale value of the diesel car to be collected by the dealers at the time of the sale.”

The ministry of urban transport is giving a major push to improve ridership in bus transport services across all major Indian cities by 2020.

Delhi and Pune are targeting a ridership of 80 per cent, while Kolkata and Bangaluru are targeting 90 per cent each. Unfortunately, poor management and operational inefficiencies are resulting in a plummeting of public transport usage. A RITES survey has highlighted that by 2030, 52 per cent of the Indian public across cities will have switched over to cars and two-wheelers. Already, bus ridership in Delhi has come down from 60 per cent in 2000 to 40 per cent in 2008.

It was the lull before the storm. After a significant drop last fiscal, the number of deaths from swine flu has shot up by about 800% in the state this year.

Jaipur: The state capital of Rajasthan will soon join the club of top ten most populated cities of urban agglomerations in the country.

Municipal corporation ties up with firm to convert waste into energy

Imagine a situation wherein 80 per cent of the solid waste generated daily is processed to produce energy. While most cities across Karnataka, particularly Bangalore, are still battling their garbage woes, the Pune Municipal Corporation appears to have stolen a march over other municipal corporations by having a good portion of its waste converted into energy.

After a two-year delay, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has sanctioned the widening of the Mankhurd-Ghatkopar link road, and the construction of the city’s first Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS).

Tenders are being floated for the Rs 207.09 crore project; Rs 173.18 crore has been allotted for the BRTS and road-widening. BRTSes — in which buses get exclusive lanes — are either planned or already functional in several cities including Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Pune. A controversial and widely criticised BRTS project in Delhi is currently in limbo after being operational for some years.

The Union Urban Development Ministry wants cities to do more than just express intent to have a metro railway system. The Ministry is annoyed that cities have been limiting their role to submitting a detailed project report and attaching an application for the Centre to approve and fund their metro systems.

A senior official of the Ministry on Wednesday said cities should play a more proactive role and emulate Kochi’s determination to get the metro project sanctioned.

Bangalore, the nation’s information technology capital, has entered the second harrowing week of being in threat of drowning in its own garbage because the landfills serving it cannot be used. In the process, the city’s municipal commissioner is being transferred.

The city’s experience offers a lesson to all major urban centres in the country, which will come to grief if they do not follow the right policies. On the other hand, those that have done so like Kanpur and Pune have become role models.