Sustainable Transport System Award: Kerala

• 26 Oct 2021

Why in News

Recently, Kerala has won the award for the ‘city with the most Sustainable Transport System’.

Key Points

• It will be presented by the Ministry for Housing and Urban Affairs.
• The award is given in recognition of the transport facilities in various states and Union Territories of India.
• The award has been given in recognition of the projects implemented — like Kochi Metro, Water Metro (Water Connectivity with the same experience as metro) and E-mobility — to enhance the transport facilities in the city of Kochi.
  
  • The formation of the Kochi Open Mobility Network, which digitized and integrated various transport facilities, also helped to win the award.

Sustainable Transport

• About:
  
  • It refers to any means of transportation that is 'green' and has low impact on the environment. It is also about balancing our current and future needs.
    
    • Examples of sustainable transportation include walking, cycling, transit, carpooling, car sharing, and green vehicles.
• Benefits:
  
  • Improves Air Quality:
    
    • Replacing many separate emissions-producing vehicles with fewer transit vehicles that generally emit less pollution on a per person basis.
  • Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions:
    
    • By moving more people with fewer vehicles, public transportation can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Public transportation produces significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile than private vehicle
  • Reduces Congestion:
    
    • Along with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by facilitating compact development, public transit also reduces congestion and traffic on the roads.
    • By reducing congestion, transit reduces emissions from cars stuck in traffic.
  • Promotes Health:
    
    • Because sustainable transit reduces emissions and air pollution, it also promotes community health.
    • Other sustainable modes of transportation, like biking and walking, also provide physical exercise to commuters while emitting zero emissions. This betters their health, as well as that of the entire community.

E- Mobility

• Electromobility is the use of electric cars, as well as e-bikes or pedelecs, electric motorbikes, e-buses and e-trucks.
  
  • The common feature of all of them is that they are fully or partly driven electrically, have a means of storing energy on board, and obtain their energy mainly from the power grid.
• E-mobility comes with zero or ultra-low tailpipe emissions of local air pollutants and much lower noise, and, by being one of the most innovative clusters for the automotive sector, can provide a major boost to the economic and industrial competitiveness, attracting investments, especially in countries.

Source: IE