Compressed Natural Gas Buses in India: Seeing through the Air Pollution Lens, Darkly

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Indian cities rank among those with the poorest air quality levels globally, with significant health and welfare impacts. A wide range of policies has been implemented since the 1990s to address motor vehicular emissions, which have been seen as a major contributor to this problem. In Delhi, the Indian capital, all public and for-hire motor vehicles (buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws) were mandated to be powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) in 1998; Delhi arguably has one of the largest public vehicle fleets operating on this or any alternative fuel worldwide. Unfortunately, poor urban air quality persists, despite these policies.

In his talk, Madhav Badami will present some key policy-relevant results and insights based on published research conducted in collaboration with a PhD student on the operational and financial performance, life-cycle costs, and cost-effectiveness of CNG relative to diesel buses in Delhi. Their research showed that, while CNG buses have reduced particulate and greenhouse gas emissions, their high cost has likely negatively affected public transit supply and ridership, with important implications for motor vehicle activity and its impacts.

Madhav Badami will argue that environmental policies such as CNG implementation should be evaluated in terms of environmental as well as other (transit operation, socio-economic and equity) objectives, rather than only environmental outcomes; and that it is not only futile but counter-productive to view urban transport largely even if not exclusively through the lens of air pollution (or urban air quality through the lens of urban transport), as was done in Delhi.