Ahmedbad BRTS helping reduce emissions in city

The air you breathe now is less polluted in Ahmedabad -with 31% less carbon monoxide (CO) and 44% less nitrogen oxides (NOx) than the pollutants in 2006.

This is thanks to public transport like Bus Rapid Transit System and Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) and auto-rickshaws switching to CNG. This was the finding of a dissertation by the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (Cept) University.

The dissertation titled 'Strategies for Reducing Urban Transport Emissions - A case of Ahmedabad' claims that  use of CNG as fuel in auto-rickshaws has made a lot of difference in levels of CO, NOx,  hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate matter (PM).

The dissertation was by a student of masters of urban transport and urban planning Viyush Patel under the guidance of Prof HM Shivanand Swamy.

It suggests that because of change in fuel in AMTS and auto-rickshaws to CNG, PM has reduced by around 64% and CO by 26%.  However, HC has increased by 8% after usage of CNG in vehicles.  

According to the dissertation, among the modes of public transport the positive impact of BRTS on Green House Gas emissions has been the most. This is because after the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) started the BRTS in 2009, around 22% of private vehicle users shifted to BRTS helping to reduce emission and reduction in NOx  by 20%, carbon dioxide by 13%, HC by 6.3% and CO by 5% apart from PM because BRTS bus uses EURO III diesel buses.

Similarly, switch to CNG and increasing 410 buses in AMTS also helped reducing CO by 26%, NOx by 24% as around 22% commuters switched to AMTS.

"When petrol auto-rickshaws were in use before 2005, emissions were higher. For example, all auto-rickshaws emit around 11,396 kg CO a day, 6,911 kg of HC, 4,302 kg of NOx apart from 5,80,743 kg of CO2 and 355 kg PM.

This reduced to 5,824 kg of CO in a day, 16,257 kg HC, 1,697 kg NOx, 4,84,679 kg CO2 and 147 kg PM when CNG was used as fuel. This means the emissions in 2010 fell by 5,572 kg CO, 2,605 kg NOx, 96,064 kg CO2 and 208 kg PM,” said Patel.

The dissertation, however, mentions that two-wheelers emit the most with 20,410 kg of CO in a day, 5,198.89 kg NOx, 7,03,331.10 kg CO2 and 140.71 kg PM.

However, the dissertation warns that because of increasing number of private vehicles in the city, GHG emissions are increasing despite all efforts by the authorities.

“Main conclusion of research is that government should prepare a comprehensive plan which has integrated measures of vehicle GHG emission reduction in Ahmedabad city. We found in the study that no single measure can reduce all GHG emissions,” concludes the paper.