How many ways from here to there

Written with Srijit Ghosh This year Diwali in Delhi, the goddess Laxmi didn’t quite stay after gracing the city’s residents, but rather she must have scurried away in a hurry to avoid the poisonous concoction that was Delhi’s air. After the festival, Delhi reported the highest levels of particulate matter in the air. Parts of Delhi experienced up to 1,238 PPM of 2.5PM particulate matter, where the usual average unhealthy level is around 300 PPM (the global safe recommendation is 10 PPM). Due to the persistent thermal-inversion, the situation remained bleak for nearly a week.  Schools and public institutions were closed. Factories were directed to shut down.  In fact, for the first time, residents could taste the dirtiness of the air. Delhi’s air pollution problem can’t particularly be blamed on single source such as high industrial activity on its outskirts; heavy levels of construction, or; hinterland farmers burning crop stubs post-harvest, but it’s persistency can be attr

Can The Open Road Truly be Electrifying? Will the electric car jump the barriers of cost, low gas prices, preferences and range anxiety of the average car buyer? President Obama’s goal in 2008 was to ‘put 1 million advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015’ [i] . Clearly we haven’t reached that goal with the different incentives from the federal government, and other independent state initiatives. The federal government’s three pronged approach of investing in R&D, rebates, and rewarding communities that invest in electric vehicle infrastructure, has not been enough to overcome the challenges of technology and buyer’s perceptions to make the goal achievable. There needs to a shift in the policy’s focus to change the current rate of market adoption of electric cars as a viable alternative. Understanding what worked and didn’t work The three strategies mentioned above primarily focused on changing the market for vehicles. However, their estimates of effo

For the cover story 'Metronomics',  in the July edition of Infrastructure Today (an Indian Trade Magazine), the author asked me a few questions about my perspective as an urban planning consultant, about the plans for developing a rail based MRTS for over 20 Indian cities. The article extensively quotes my opinion, and can be access here . The following is my response to the questions posed by the author - 1. In a society that is urbanizing at a very rapid clip, what is the scope for MRTS across India? There is tremendous scope of developing and growing Mass Rapid Transit Systems in Cities that come under the Tier I and II (more than a million population), primarily to maiximise the locational efficiencies of economic engines/employment centers. Commute times are a drag on economic output, therefore reducing travel times should be a primary goal for all sectors of city/regional governance. MRTS is one such tool that can help in that. Secondly, India in general, a