Indian transport sector: Energy and environmental implications

Transport is an essential ingredient for economic development of a nation. It also has energy and environmental implications. This article discusses the trends in energy consumption and environmental emissions in the context of the operations of the Indian transportation sector. It provides a brief overview of the performance of the sector and shows that the energy consumption pattern is closely related to it. The analysis shows that there have been improvements in efficiencies of all modes of transport (except the coal traction of railways) in the last decade. The emission of local air pollutants due to road transport is estimated. Finally, the emissions of carbon dioxide due to the operation of the transport sector are also estimated. Diesel vehicles emit maximum amounts of carbon dioxide (17.7 million tonnes of carbon equivalent out of 26.45) and can be advantageously considered for controlling future carbon dioxide emissions.