Thursday, June 7, 2012

Chennai transport sector is fifth largest polluter, says study


Chennai:
Chennai is ranked fifth when it comes to emission of carbon in the transport sector across 54 south Asian cities, according to a study done by International Council for Local Environmental Initiative.

Disclosing the findings of the study during a conference on Creating Carbon Neutral Chennai: Planning for Integrated Freight Movement here on Wednesday, ICLEI research officer Ali Adil said the city’s emission levels in transport is much higher than Kolkata and Delhi.

The study also states that while Chennai has a per capita emission rate at 0.91 tonnes while its total emissions for the year is 3.82 million tec02 (metric tonnes of carbon dioxide).

This is mostly due to the fact that use of motor vehicles for daily use of passenger and goods has increased significantly during the last few years. As against 12.5 lakh registered vehicles in Chennai in 2001, there are approximately 35 lakh vehicles registered in 2012.

Earlier, experts called for integration of rail, road and water transport for integrated freight movement. S N Srikanth, senior partner, Hauer Associates said that diverting the freight from road to rail and waterways could help reduce cost of movement and promote sustainable development.

Citing examples of various countries, he stressed on the need for comprehensive transport policy to integrate road, rail and water transport modes besides the need to use Chennai’s three water bodies to ferry freight. “With the expansion of road proving costlier due to high land cost, there is need to increase the potential of waterways,” he said.

V Sumantran, vice-chairman of Ashok Leyland stressed the need for integrated freight mobility and said there is a need to access data and system to plan logistics movement with the help of technology.

Highways and minor ports department secretary T K Ramachandran highlighted how Vision 2023 is crucial for the city in planning for the future which highlighting the various projects enunciated by his department.

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