Three new publications from the ‘Promoting Low Carbon Transport in India’ project were launched this month. The first ‘Case Study of Metro Rail in Indian Cities‘ examines the costs and benefits of metro rail projects for achieving the twin goals of inclusive and sustainable development and low-carbon growth. While energy efficiency gains associated with metro rail projects are known to policymakers in India, the implication of other costs and benefits based on life cycle methodology are less known. This study aims to provide a framework for short and long-term assessment of costs and benefits of transport infrastructure projects like the metro rail projects in cities.
This case study assess the potential of the Delhi-metro rail and focuses on overview of project demand estimation and financing plans, as well as impact on safety and CO2 emissions.
The case study of Metro rails is one of the four case studies being carried out under the LCT project. These studies cover transportation projects under implementation in India for passenger and freight transport. The objective of these case studies is to explain the economic, social and environmental impacts of selected transportation projects.
The second publication ‘Second-Generation Biofuel Potential in India Sustainability and Cost Considerations’, assess biomass resource availability in India from sustainably derived agricultural residues that can potentially be used for biofuel production. According to IPCC (2007), biofuels have a large potential to reduce GHG emissions in the transportation sector. On the other hand, developing countries such as India have multiple constraints in promoting biofuels, such as promoting energy security, rural development, and the reclamation of degraded lands as well as coping with the challenges of land and water scarcity and improving food security. This publication tracks the current status of biofuel production and its utilization as well as presents the economic feasibility of biofuels and the cost of agricultural residues.
The third publication launched ‘Assessment of Motor Vehicle Use Characteristics in Three Indian Cities’ gives an account of fuel efficiency and other vehicular characteristics of the existing fleet in India. In order to set standards for fuel efficiency, there needs to be assessments of it in the current fleet, as a base case. In addition, since the final objective is to reduce total fuel consumed, to estimate the total consumption there is a need to estimate vehicular usage and share of fuel type (petrol, diesel, CNG, LPG). This information forms an integral part of understanding the status of the current fleet. This report presents case studies of three cities in India – Delhi (the capital city), Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, and Rajkot in Gujarat.
The LCT project has been endorsed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India. It is being jointly implemented by the UNEP DTU Partnership (formerly UNEP Risø Centre, Denmark); Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D); Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A); and CEPT University, Ahmedabad.