Double trouble: Road mobility in India is both unsustainable and unjust
That India has made impressive strides in expanding its road infrastructure is undeniable and very visible. Going by historical metrics, one can also possibly justify this expansion. After all, India has a mere 5.13km of road length per 1,000 people, against more than 20km in the US.
On the other hand, China has a mere 3.6km of roads per 1,000 population. The annual budgetary allocation of the Union ministry of road transport and highways has been steadily increasing for the last several years, with the last year seeing a 25% jump. At the same time, the ratio between capital and revenue expenditures has changed from about 50:50 in 2014-15 to approximately 90:10 today, implying a greater focus on developing new road infrastructure over maintaining older roads.
The deteriorating quality of existing road infrastructure results in more accidents, lower fuel efficiency and higher pollution. Driving smoothly in a range of 60-80km per hour results in the best fuel efficiency. As it happens, India’s intra-city vehicle speed is among the lowest in the world.
It has been estimated that the average traffic speed in Delhi was 25kmph in 2017, 18.9kmph in Chennai, 20.7kmph in Mumbai, 19.2kmph in Kolkata, 18.5kmph in Hyderabad and 17.2kmph in Bengaluru. The significantly reduced fuel efficiency at these modest speeds would obviously result in more fossil-fuel burning than otherwise and hence more greenhouse gas and other emissions that constitute air pollution. The transport sector is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, at 14% of the total in 2018, as estimated, nearly four-fifths of it from road transport.
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