Road To Contain Climate Change

In this article, Mr S Sundar and Mr Sharif Qamar say that roads and railways bind a nation and bring people together. They facilitate the achievement of SDGs, as without adequate mobility, SDGs cannot be achieved and sustained.

- Mr S Sundar and Mr Sharif Qamar

Through Public Procurement

India has made a bold commitment in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to reduce CO2 emission intensity by 33-35% by 2030. This commitment, which is widely acclaimed as a courageous move, has placed a great responsibility on India. The fulfilment of India's commitments is to a large extent dependent on its ability to increase the share of railways in the transportation of freight and passengers to 45 per cent of total land transportation by 2030.

This clearly calls for a massive investment both in road and rail together with strategies to bring about a shift from road to more environmentally benign modes such as rail and water. Raising additional funds for the development of roads and railways should not be a problem if the government is committed to raise funds through monetization of assets and sale of land. This would need to have a special cell or a special purpose vehicle to make it happen in a totally transparent manner.

The road sector in India is still underdeveloped: only 24 per cent of the national highways are four/six/eight laned, while 49 per cent are two-laned, and 27 per cent are single/intermediate land. The Government has set up massive targets for road construction but have not taken necessary steps to implement strategies to reduce road-related morbidity and mortality caused by well-developed roads and fast-moving cars, and also in consciously planning and implementing measures to reduce CO, emissions in building and operating national highways, a subject on which TERI has done seminal work.