A mere ban on two-stroke autorickshaws will do little to reduce the pollution burden in the city, while a phase-wise introduction of electric autorickshaws may lead to a reduction of more than 4.4 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted annually.
A recent study on the emissions by autorickshaws in the city, conducted by The Energy Research Institute (TERI), shows that if all two-stroke autorickshaw drivers switched to four-stroke models, the emission saved by the city is a mere 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution. This is barely a dent in the 4.5 lakh tonnes of the pollutant being released by autorickshaws.
Of the 1.8 lakh registered autorickshaws, just 20,000 are two-stroke vehicles. Though autorickshaws are just 2% of the total number of vehicles in the city, up to 10.8% of the trips daily in the city are through autorickshaws, said the report by Palak Thakur and Sugandha Pal, TERI researchers. On an average, autorickshaws zip around 135 lakh km in the city in a year.
Critical for mobility
“Autorickshaws are a critical part of the mobility in the city. This is an informal transport sector and these have been neglected by policy in India ... Autorickshaws can be made electric easier than other private vehicles,” said Ms. Pal on why the sector was chosen to develop electric strategies.
The researchers argue that any scheme to upgrade autorickshaws, particularly with a focus on going electric, will have an impact on emissions as well as on the quantum of LPG consumed. Moreover, with around 1.5 lakh autorickshaws being added to the city’s roads every five years, the pollution burden owing to this will also increase by 5 lakh tonnes of carbon emissions, states the study which was conducted as part of the European Union Switch Asia programme to understand the autorickshaw sector in Bengaluru and Chennai.
In a phased manner
If nothing is done to address this, the autorickshaw sector itself will contribute 164.6 tonnes of particulate matter (PM) annually, apart from 1,445 million tonnes of nitrous oxide pollutants.
Currently, the ban on two-stroke autorickshaws remain, and with this alone, while the carbon dioxide emissions reduce slightly, PM10 emissions reduce to just 50 tonnes annually. However, nitrous oxide pollutants — which are emitted more by four-stroke autorickshaws than their two-stroke counterparts — increase by nearly 300 tonnes annually.
Instead, the researchers recommend a phase-wise shift to electric autorickshaws. If the banned two-stroke autorickshaws and 30% of the four-stroke autorickshaws are converted to electric vehicles, nearly 2.1 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced, while more than three-fourths of the PM10 pollution is tackled. The second phase, involving conversion of an additional 30% of autorickshaws to electric, will see a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 70% from the current levels, PM10 emissions by nearly 90% and nitrous oxide emissions by nearly two-thirds from the current levels.
“This is certainly implementable, particularly with incentives, permit waivers and other subsidies. In Delhi, we’ve seen electric autos come up primarily as there was demand from drivers from them. With Karnataka having an electric vehicle policy, we can achieve this in a few years ... the local area reduction in pollution will be significant,” said Ms. Thakur.
Along with their NGO partners, the researchers are testing a pilot in Chennai, involving the local metro and using electric autorickshaws as feeder services.
