Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
There is often major public and civil society resistance to freeway building, yet, arguably,
this remains the mainstream model within transport strategies and implementation in Asia.
Traffic engineering, in practice, often reflects the traditional thinking from previous decades.
The alternative, which is gaining great momentum, is in gradually developing the transit city
(with examples in Seoul and Singapore) or indeed the bus rapid transit (BRT) city (Jinan and
Jakarta). The BRT model has become very popular, inspired by the experience of Curitiba
from the 1970s onwards (led by Mayor Jamie Lerner) and Bogotá in the 1990s (Mayor Enrique
Peñalosa). BRT has become the central feature of transport strategies in an increasing number
of cities in Asia, with a developing series of BRT schemes in cities such as Hyderabad, Pune,
Taipei, Kunming, Beijing, Hangzhou and Dalian. There are now over 200 schemes in operation
or being planned; BRT is affordable for many municipalities, and in terms of speed, capacity,
and comfort is similar to many metro or tram systems (Wright, 2010; Hildago, 2009). India
is central to much of this developing practice and it illustrates well the challenges, and efforts
being made, in reducing the potential growth in motorisation (Tiwari and Jain, 2010).
India is the world's second most populous country, with 1.2 billion persons, and a greater
population than Europe, Africa and the entire Western hemisphere. The population is likely
to exceed that of China by 2030, with India becoming the world's most populous country.
Some of the illustrations are very illuminating: Indian boys, or girls, below the age of 5 exceed
62 million (Haub and Sharma, 2006), marginally more than the total UK population. India is
also noted as the largest democracy in the world and the seventh ranked country by its geo-
graphical area. The northwest of the country was home to the ancient Indus Valley civilisation
(dating from the Bronze Age, 3300-1300
BC
) and the first known settlements date back to
8,500 years ago (Reddy, 2003). India has a very diverse and distinct culture, with major reli-
gions playing significant roles, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism (originating
locally) and Christianity and Islam (arriving from overseas). In terms of modern history, the
region was gradually annexed by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth
century, and colonised as part of the British Empire. India became an independent nation in
1947, after a historic struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress
(Markovits, 2004).
million in metropolitan population) in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, and a further ten cities
with more than 2 million in city population. The rate of urbanisation is relatively low at 30
per cent, hence the rural villages and towns remain very important in demographic terms.
Mahatma Gandhi noted that 'India lives in its villages', yet this is changing substantially over
time.
Some of the key socio-demographic statistics for India are given in
Table 5.2
. Current
population growth is at 1.3 per cent per annum, higher than a Western industrialised context,
or that of China, but much less than found in India in previous decades. Gross national income
(GNI) per capita is low at $1,220 per capita, less than half the levels in China. Gross domestic
product (GDP) growth varies from 4 to 9 per cent per annum in recent years, which is high
by global standards, but of course per capita GDP levels are low. Although India is a very
important emerging economic power, only a fraction of Indians are benefiting from the growth.
Material aspirations and consumption are both growing rapidly, but again from very low levels
relative to industrialised country standards. Motorisation is at 15 vehicles/1,000 population,
mobile phone subscriptions are at 30 per 100 persons and Internet use at 5 per 100 persons.
All of these figures are substantially below the levels found in China. CO2 emissions are also
low at 1.3 tons per capita (2007/2008 data, World Bank, 2010a). But of course most of these
metrics are rising rapidly, and because of the population base, aggregate levels are already
