Vehicles in India released 219 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2005 and experts predict this figure will jump almost seven-fold to 1,470 tonnes by 2035 if car travel remains unchecked
SRINAGAR, India (AlertNet) - Irshad Ahmad is all set to drive his Chevrolet Beat down the road. Fresh from the showroom in Srinagar, his Chevy will be among the 21,600 new cars expected to hit the road in the Kashmir region of Jammu and Kashmir by the end of the year.
Out of a total population of 5.6 million, 75,000 people in Indian-administered Kashmir own a car. That's a tiny proportion compared to Europe or the United States.
But things are changing fast. In Delhi, 1,000 new vehicles are added to the streets daily. Passenger car sales across India jumped 32 percent in 2009, boosted by easy financing terms.
Ahmad works in a private telecoms firm on a monthly salary of 19,000 Indian rupees (about $420). It is not enough money to comfortably support his family of six and a car as well, but he is prepared to make sacrifices.
"I sought a car loan from the bank which I will be repaying by easy monthly installments," he said. "I thought it is better to cut down on other expenses if I and my family are to travel hassle-free."
Banks loans finance nearly all the cars sold at this Srinagar showroom.
"We decided to cut down on corporate lending and lay more focus on retail lending. The latter gives us more profit and security," said Eijaz Ahmad, a Jammu and Kashmir Bank official.
The bank approved loans of more than half a billion Indian rupees (about $11 million) in the last quarter of 2009.
INDIA'S AUTOMOBILE DREAM
Ahmad, the new car buyer, is hardly the only Indian with a dream of traveling without wasting time on public transport. He is not bothered that more cars will mean more congestion in Srinagar, where traffic jams already last for hours.
"You know, owning a car is a necessity given the pathetic plight of our public transport," he said. "I have no idea if more cars on the roads pose a threat to the environment."
India has more than 85 million vehicles on its roads and the negative impact of the car-boom is slowly coming to the fore, both in terms of congestion and environmental costs.
Vehicles in India released 219 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2005 and experts predict this figure will jump almost seven-fold to 1,470 tonnes by 2035 if car travel remains unchecked.
India's Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) says most of the country's big cities regularly violate air quality standards, with airborne particulate matter from harmful gases exceeding World Health Organization guidelines.
Last year's launch by Tata Motors of the Nano, the world's cheapest car (which costs around $2,500), raised an outcry by environmentalists. They warned it heralded a coming "nightmare" of choking pollution and clogged roads.
Drivers blame the government.
"It is the duty of the government to put a viable alternative in place or expand the roads in order to avoid traffic congestion," said Abdul Hamid who drives from his workplace in Pampore, southeast of Srinagar, to his home at the weekend.
Recently regulators introduced new fuel standards, designed to cut sulphur emissions by between around 40 to 50 percent. Nevertheless India lags around six years behind the U.S. and Europe in enforcing standards for cleaner fuels.
GROWING CARBON EMISSIONS
India also ranks as one of the world's largest emitters of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change, behind China, the United States and Russia, though its per-capita emissions remain relatively low.
Anumita Roy Choudhury of the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based sustainability consortium, said the real issue is a lack of government support for public transport.
Cars are only so widely affordable because the car manufacturing industry is heavily subsidized, she said.
"Car companies get big subsidies at the manufacturing stage through cheap land deals, interest-free capital and other concessions. These subsidies help bring down the cost of production and allow the manufacturer to price the car cheap," said Choudhury, who runs the centre's Right to Clean Air campaign.
She contends that public transport gets comparatively little help.
"Our government penalises buses by taxing them higher than the much-pampered cars. Buses that use less than five percent of the road space meet more than 60 percent of the travel demand," she said.
"Cars may drive growth and aspirations, but they can never meet the commuting needs of urban India," she said.
Athar Parvaiz Bhat is a freelance writer based in Srinagar, Kashmir, who focuses on environment and health issues. His news stories and articles appear in various regional and international news outlets. This article was produced by Panos London.
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