Low Emission Zones must become reality in key Indian cities: Experts

With increasing ecological concerns, cities across the world are looking at creating Low Emission Zones (LEZs) in key areas where only vehicles with low or zero emissions are allowed. Stakeholders on Thursday discussed why LEZs are important and needed in Indian metropolitan cities and how they can get a “buy-in” among policymakers so that it finally gets implemented, and not becomes yet another urban pilot that remains on paper.
The discussion was part of a session at the Indian Clean Transportation Summit, organised by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) that saw participation from government officials, industry stakeholders, civil society members, think tanks, and international and national experts who said that a top-down approach is needed wherein the government should mandate LEZs in cities that especially need to tackle issues like pollution, air quality, and congestion.
“In our experience with the government, we have realised that any concept only finds a higher political buy-in if it addresses an important concern that the government is facing. We need to meet the state midway and stay with a higher-level agenda. It could be different for different cities. It may be pollution for some cities, congestion for others, and growth or job creation for others and whatever of these pushes the government towards implementation should be taken up by advocacy agencies,” said Srikanth Viswanathan, chief executive officer of Janaagraha.
Other experts said that there was a need to bring together all the various policies and stitch them together instead of suggesting any new policy. Anannya Das Banerjee from UC Davis said, “We already have multiple policies from the centre to the cities on transportation, pollution mitigation, urban planning and emission reduction. We need to detangle the perspectives and have singular plans that make efforts like LEZs prescriptive and not just restrictive and optional.”
The impact of exhaustive data collection to aid decision-making was also highlighted by multiple experts.
“We have been facing pollution-related concerns for very long but LEZs have still not been mandated anywhere. Most of the Indian cities do not even have exhaustive, hyperlocal or real-time data on air quality. Such data is essential for showing impact and helping governments develop alternatives and solutions,” said Siddharth Sinha from Google India.
Meanwhile, Sarika Panda, founder trustee from the Raahgiri Foundation highlighted the impact of Raahgiri and other car free events that were created as temporary LEZs and how such events helped in air quality management.
Amit Bhatt, India managing director of ICCT, said that stakeholders should collectively discuss what they bring to the table and which way each organisation can help to further the emission reduction principles and develop an understanding with implementation agencies.