Bharat SainiLast Updated on September 29, 2018 by Bharat Saini
India is on the move, in terms of its economy, reforms, cities and towns, infrastructure, goods, youth and so are our lives on the move, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while inaugurating – MOVE: India’s 1st Global Mobility Summit on September 7, 2018 in New Delhi and added that mobility is a key driver of the economy; it can boost economic growth and create employment opportunities. Prime Minister also outlined the vision for the future of mobility in India based on 7 C’s. The 7 C’s are Common, Connected, Convenient, Congestion-free, Charged, Clean and Cutting-edge, as he reiterated the ‘mantra’, “Public transport must be the cornerstone of our mobility initiatives,” and added, “While mobility is critical to preserving our planet, road transport accounts for one-fifth of global CO2 emissions. This threatens to choke cities and raise global temperatures.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was presented at the Global Mobility Summit a report prepared by the NITI Aayog and Boston Consulting Group (BCG): ‘Transforming India’s Mobility: A Perspective’ that calls for efficient and convenient public transport to answer the twin problems of pollution and congestion. According to the report the future of mobility for India should be: “SAHI: Safe, Adequate, Holistic Infrastructure”.
The audience at the summit included CEOs of global car makers, including the Chairman of Japanese major Suzuki, Osamu Suzuki, Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor, Chung Euisun, Toyota CEO Takeshi Uchiyamada, and Chen Zhixin, President of largest Chinese car maker SAIC.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised that:
- Mobility has been the key to progress of humanity.
- World is now in the middle of a new mobility revolution and it is, therefore, important to understand mobility as a wider construct.
- Mobility, if better, it reduces the burden of travel and transportation and can boost economic growth.
- Mobility is already a major employer and can create the next generation of jobs.
- Mobility is central to urbanization and motorized personal vehicles require ever-growing road, parking, and traffic infrastructure.
- Mobility is a key element of ‘ease of living’.
- Mobility occupies the minds of virtually every person: in time spent to get to school and work, in frustration with traffic, in the cost of visiting family or moving goods, in access to public transport, in the quality of air our children breathe in concerns around the safety of travel.
- Creating a mobility eco-system that is in sync with nature is the need of the hour.
- Mobility is the next frontier in our fight against Climate Change.
- Better mobility can provide for better jobs, smarter infrastructure, and improve the quality of life.
- Mobility can also reduce costs, expand economic activity and protect the planet. Thus, the mobility sector impacts larger public outcomes.
- Mobility, especially the digitization of mobility, is disruptive.
- Mobility has big potential for innovation and it has been setting a searing pace!
- Already, people are calling taxis on their phones, sharing bicycles in cities; buses are running on clean energy, cars are going electric.
In a rapidly transforming mobility paradigm, India has some inherent strengths and comparative advantages. Our starting point is fresh. We have little of the legacy of resource-blind mobility. Modi said at the summit, “I am convinced that the ‘Mobility Revolution’ is an enabler of our growth and development. When India transforms mobility, it benefits one fifth of mankind. It also becomes a scaled success story, for others to replicate. Let us build a template, for the world to adopt.” In India, we have been laying emphasis on mobility:
- We have doubled our pace of construction of highways.
- We have re-energized our rural road-building programme.
- We are promoting fuel efficient and cleaner fuel vehicles.
- We have developed low-cost air connectivity in under-served regions.
- We are also starting operations on hundreds of new air routes.
- We are pushing waterways in addition to traditional modes like rail and road.
- We are reducing travel distances in our cities by efficient location of homes, schools and offices.
- We have also started data-driven interventions such as intelligent traffic management systems.
- We, however, also need to encourage pedestrians and cycling by taking steps ensure their safety and priority.
“The main aim through the summit is to revolutionise the way people travel in India, along with making mobility more connected, shared and seamless,” said Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant at a press conference.
The summit deliberated on five themes:
- Maximising asset utilisation and services.
- Comprehensive electrification and alternative fuels.
- Reinventing public transport.
- Goods transport and logistics.
- Data analytics and mobility
