Bad driving habits prompted government to hike fuel prices

Bad driving habits visible across some of India's urban roads are leading to a massive waste of fuel that could yet be averted through
better public education campaigns, energy and transport planning.

The cause which prompted government to hike fuel prices includes, delays in pushing alternative technologies to fossil fuels and low priority to public transport.

Fuel import bills that prompted the government to hike fuel prices
today government has raised the prices of petrol by about Rs 5, diesel by Rs 3 and LPG by Rs 50. India's fuel import bill for 121.672 million tonnes of crude oil, driven by rising oil prices, grew by 40 per cent to $68 billion in 2007-08.

But research indicates that enormous amount of fuel could be saved just by improving driving. One study has shown that engines left idling at traffic lights in New Delhi use up about Rs 995 crore worth of fuel.

In efforts to reduce dependence on oil, the ministry of petroleum had in April 2007 announced a plan to introduce a 5 per cent ethanol blended petrol, to be increased to 10 per cent this year.

The ministry of new and renewable energy had pencilled a hydrogen energy road map that envisages one million two-wheelers and three-wheelers running on hydrogen.

But, government officials admit, both appear to be moving slower than anticipated. "Both ethanol and sugar come from sugarcane. Any dramatic increase in ethanol is likely to affect sugar output," said a renewable energy expert.

Some experts are concerned that a massive bio-fuels effort may cause land to be diverted from food crops to fuel crops.

Energy experts also believe that policy initiatives that might help dramatically reduce fuel consumption in the transport sector have long been lacking in India.

Transport and energy experts have long been arguing for measures such as congestion taxes or fuel-efficiency linked fees that could drive consumers away from cars towards public transport.

Money from such charges from individual vehicles could be released to develop high quality public transport systems, But this is not happening in India, We're heading into a fuel crisis.