CSE thumbs-down to Auto Mission Plan
The Auto Mission Plan (AMP) 2006-2016 released on Monday has failed to meet the expectations of environmentalists. Experts from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) feel that the plan is devoid of any concrete measure to reduce air pollution.
By Ritu Gupta, TNN |
NEW DELHI: The Auto Mission Plan (AMP) 2006-2016 released on Monday has failed to meet the expectations of environmentalists. Experts from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) feel that the plan is devoid of any concrete measure to reduce air pollution.
The AMP calls for setting up an organisation to develop an emission roadmap, which would provide for changes in emission norms after a minimum gap of four years. Experts feel that the gap is far too long and norms should be changed more frequently.
According to coordinator of Air Pollution Control Unit of CSE Anumita Roychowdhury, the move is aimed at enabling the auto industry to avoid frequent investments in carrying out changes prescribed by new emission norms. The insistence on the four-year gap when the decision to introduce Euro IV emission norms is getting delayed can push back the next stage of technology development much beyond 2010.
���It is indefensible that the government should be so willing to forego public revenue to build an auto export hub that will produce cleaner cars for the European markets but not for its own cities,��� adds Roychowdhury. Environmentalists are also concerned about the proposed massive investment that will fail to bring in clean technology. According to them, AMP fails to encourage globalisation is terms of the state-of-the-art technology.
The AMP states that encouragement will be given to the manufacturing of fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles. This too has been criticised on the grounds of lack of a clear roadmap and milestone. ���What one would see on roads despite these rosy promises would be cars that have outdated technology,��� says Ms Roychowdhury.
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Environmentalists also assert that when the rest of the world is discouraging car usage to combat problems like air pollution and global warming, countries like India are introducing policy measures like AMP that would lead to more energy consumption and a phenomenal increase in air pollution and ultimately health problems. As per a CSE study, public transport, which is key to leveraging change towards sustainable mobility ��� is collapsing in most cities. Only eight of the 35 cities that have more than a million population have dedicated bus services; even these are under extreme pressure.
Approximately 80 million trips need to be catered to daily in our metro cities, but the available rail and bus transport can cater to only 37 million.
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