Trains offer the best of green mobility solutions

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: more significant impact on the overall environmental scenario in India.

The government has recognised this need and is in the process of bringing out policies to promote rail based urban transportation. Such large projects entail relatively high financial outlay for which only budgetary support will not suffice. Policy planners are evolving innovative financial models like public private partnership to attract private/ foreign investments in this sector. To enable this, there is a need to formulate model concession agreements with investment and legal framework, which global companies can identify with.

While the government has started rolling out policies to promote rail transportation, increasing capacity is only part of the answer. Rail transportation also has to provide an attractive and competitive alternative to driving and flying if it wants to level the playing field in its favour. This industry’s players—and its operators in particular—are at the hub of the efforts to rise to this challenge. In the years to come, the companies in the railway sector will play a critical role in advancing sustainable mobility and development in the country. Ecological compatibility is a major competitive advantage of rail transport vis-à-vis other modes of motorised travel. This needs to be enhanced by the introduction of environmental improve- ments through the production chain. For sector players, the aim has to be to balance technological innovation and product development with sound and sustainable environmental policy.

Emerging countries are struggling to cope with the pressures that their growing economies have created and the impact this has on the environment and the quality of life for their citizens. Therefore, it becomes imperative that one of the key issues of transport is addressed in a way that continually strives to improve ecological standards and also protects the environment. If the government increases focus on PPP with regard to policy making as well as implementation, it will ultimately serve to improve the overall efficacy of public works and the standard of living of all Indians.