A shift to NMT and Public Transport to tackle decreasing Emissions
Activities – reaching Indian citizens
The Sustainable Urban Transport project partners with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and works on behalf of BMZ closely with three Indian smart cities. At the annual Urban Mobility India conference, the project’s work was presented in a stall which got awarded to be the second best of its kind. By inviting Latin American transport experts to the conference, the knowledge exchange between the two continents could be promoted – something which was of special interest for the project partner this year. In the city of Kochi, the project is piloting an electric rickshaw service to provide climate friendly last mile connectivity for the citizens. In Coimbatore the project has run a tactical urbanism activity in which very colorfully exclusive bus lanes, walkways and pedestrian crossings were marked on the streets. This will soon be translated into permanent road surface markings. In Bhubaneshwar by supporting the public transport bus service the ridership could be increased from daily 15.000 to more than 123.000 in nine months. For this achievement the bus operator got the award best city bus project 2019.
Growing attention for transport challenges
For both the Indian and German government the attention for the pressing challenges in terms of climate change mitigation and sustainability of the Indian transport sector is growing. This got reflected during Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to New Delhi in November 2020 where concessional loans of €1 billion until 2023 through KfW bank for the improvement of urban mobility infrastructure and services in India were announced. The Indian Government itself already in 2019 announced the second phase of a finance scheme (FAME II) by which in the next three years € 1,2 billion will be invested into the procurement of electric buses and charging infrastructure for Indian cities.
Outlook to the year 2020
Electric mobility is on the rise in India. A Training Needs Assessment will be undertaken, to discover and fill capacity gaps in public transport operators and authorities to successfully assist e-bus adoption, reduce transitional costs and support green mobility. In November 2020 the next Urban Mobility India conference is happening supported by the project – this year in Delhi.
The fruitful collaboration between India and Germany in transport sector will go on in 2020 and get institutionalized. A new Joint Working Group on “Green Urban Mobility Partnership” between MoHUA, BMZ, GIZ and KfW will have its first meeting this year. Also, recently a new project between Ministry of Commerce and Federal Ministry of Environment (BMU) started its work on green freight. Furthermore, a project between BMZ and the Indian Ministry of Heavy Industries will start mid 2020 to work on the promotion of climate friendly electric mobility – tightly aligned with the FAME II scheme.
In January Jürgen Baumann took up the responsibility as the Project Manager of Smart SUT and as a focal point for Green Urban Mobility and Transport in GIZ India.
For further information we are happy if you reach out to us.
Contact: Tim-Sören Hohmann, GIZ IN
Integrated and Sustainable Urban Transport Systems for Smart Cities in India (Smart SUT) is implemented by GIZ and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Climate friendly freight transport in India (Green Freight) is implemented by GIZ and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) and funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).
Photo: Urban Mobility India Conference – Project stall of Smart SUT.