Ticket to ride... to a low-carbon future?

24 Aug 2010 – Shankar Venkateswaran

Last week, I had a meeting with a potential client at their office located in Gurgaon, a southern suburb of Delhi. As someone who is conscious of my personal carbon footprint and being part of SustainAbility, which advocates a zero-carbon world to whoever will listen, I thought it will be most appropriate to travel to this meeting by Delhi’s public transport pride – the Delhi Metro – which only recently had inaugurated a part of the Delhi-Gurgaon Metro line.

So, off I went on the Metro and after a smooth and comfortable ride, got off at the appropriate station in Gurgaon and set about finding the best way to my client’s office. Guragon, as a friend pointed out, lives in the 16th and 21st century simultaneously – it has no pavements and so walking, especially in the monsoons, was a real hazard and if you were looking for public transport, the options are cycle rickshaws or their crowded motorised rickshaws that spew smoke and carbon. So, cycle rickshaw it was!

As I retraced my path after a very cordial meeting, two things really struck me about this whole Gurgaon experience. Neither was surprising or new but I guess travelling on the Metro and cycle rickshaws gives you time to reflect!

The first was the profile of people who I saw on the Metro. They were ordinary folks, who up until then perhaps hung onto crowded buses risking life and limb to get to their destinations safely and on time. Several were women who undoubtedly had spent a long time in the same buses being harassed by one of the most obnoxious of living species on this planet – the Delhi Male. To them, here was a magical experience: clean, punctual… in fact everything that Indian public transport was not! But where were Delhi’s elite busy executives – those who travel alone in large, chauffeured cars? Missing! Will the Delhi Metro and its promise of a comfortable ride to those who have never got one also be a real low-carbon and convenient alternative to Delhi’s elite whose personal carbon footprint perhaps matches the per capita emissions of Europe, if not the US? The jury, as they say, is out; at least till the whole Delhi-Gurgaon line is functional!

The second thing was the office building. If there was any doubt that India’s low per capita carbon footprint was thanks to our poor ironically subsidising our rich, just go into any of the buildings in Gurgaon with a carbon and efficiency consciousness hat on. This building was of course no different from some 50-odd building in the vicinity, all with large, high-roofed entrance foyers, air conditioned of course but with a population density of less than 5 persons per 1000 square feet of air conditioned space with no seating to enjoy the ambience! Lift foyers are similarly unpopulated and the reception areas of companies can easily be used as indoor cricket or five-a-side football facilities! I do not know enough about LEED certification of buildings but does it factor in how energy consuming spaces are utilised?

Many accuse me of being pessimistic and cynical. So, here’s to hearing the ring of Blackberries on the Delhi Metro by 2010! And cricket matches in the entrance foyers of Gurgaon’s buildings – that way, they will at least be used!