Encourage use of public transport, reduce pollution: Environmentalists

Bengaluru: Bengaluru, burdened by increasing population, is facing a major challenge to its infrastructure and environment. On the second day of the panel discussion at Idea Conclave, an initiative by the Students For Development (SFD), environmentalists apprised the students about the critical condition the city is in.

“The Phase II of the Metro Rail will take another 5-7 years to be completed and the number of vehicles by that time will be unimaginable," said Mr Mahesh Kashyap, a consultant with the Centre for Sustainable Development.

When a student asked how a common citizen can become an activist, he said that if commuters switch off their engines at traffic signals, they will contribute a lot by bringing down the pollution.

The panel discussion revolved around making more people use public transport to bring down pollution levels.

Drawing a contrast between the UK and India, Prof R. Srikanth, an environment researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), said that owning a car has become a status symbol, whereas in London office-goers take the Metro to reach their offices. He stressed that the public transport should be made more attractive to lure the commuters.

The ridership on the Metro has reached four lakhs which hints that the people want to use the public transport if it reduces the time to reach their destination. Environmentalists asserted that if footpaths and roads reaching to Metro stations are improved, more people would use public transport.

Prof Hippu Saik of NIAS alleged that the primary reason behind the pathetic condition of public transport is because the government is subservient to the automobile industry lobby.