(Source:  Autobloggreen)

Upon returning from a recent trip to Thailand, some friends of mine related experiences of what it’s like to travel on somewhat primitive roads in somewhat primitive vehicles. Disconcerting at first, apparently, but totally acceptable after a few trips prove that it’s (relatively) safe. The vehicles of choice in Thailand, along with a bunch of other far-away locales, are Tuk Tuks, three-wheeled machines that marry the front end of a scooter to the rear end of a passenger car. Soon, you’ll be able to get one in America.

We just got an email message from Tuk Tuk North America informing us that the company has officially been granted both DOT and EPA approval for its line of Mitsubishi-powered three-wheelers. This means that the Tuk Tuk will be completely road legal here in the United States. We’re not so sure you’d want to drive one cross-crountry (though we understand it’s fully capable of such trips), but as an around-town errand-runner, the little scoots might work out just fine, returning an estimated 55 miles per gallon.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Going Global & BMW Motorrad Blog via AutoblogGreen)

Two enterprising Swiss citizens are riding home along the Silk Route from Beijing to Istanbul, to generate awareness of climate change, promote sustainable motor travel and raise funds to benefit SCCF, a new international foundation focused on finding solutions to combat global warming.

Using BMW F 650 GS bikes, Mark Dembitz and Clarisse Von Wunschheim will journey across eight countries in 80 days, covering almost 17,000 kilometres. Their route will see them leave Beijing on 4 May and journey back to Europe via Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, before ending in Istanbul, Turkey on 25 July.

With a career in carbon finance and a keen interest in the environment, Mark is planning to make their ‘Going Global’ journey carbon-neutral, as well as use the opportunity to show others in cities and towns along the route how to help fight climate change.

“We will be keeping an accurate log of daily time and distance travelled as well as fuel usage, and the quantity and quality of petrol,” he said. “Based on this data, we will be able to approximate the quantity of carbon dioxide we emit along the ride. We will then secure credits (one credit is equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide) to offset our carbon emissions.

Along the way, the duo will stop at schools and universities to “teach children and students about global warming, motivating them to join us in being aware of their impact on the environment and in making small changes to their lives that will contribute towards a better and cleaner world for everyone.” 

(Source: Times of India)

Meeting stresses the need for dedicated infrastructure comprising separate facilities for cyclists.

MUMBAI: Why are bicycles, which don’t pollute, take up little space, are cheap and have virtually no maintenance cost, not a popular mode of  travel in Mumbai? According to activists and cycling enthusiasts, the reasons are a mindset that favours motorised vehicles and a lack of infrastructure to promote cycling in the city. 

These were the two chief issues discussed during a public meeting at the Carter Road amphitheatre, Bandra (W), to popularise cycling in the city to check pollution and reduce traffic congestion. The meeting, which generated a buzz in the vicinity, had several passersby joining in. Also among the participants were young professionals working in the IT industry and call centres. 

Biking enthusiasts and activists discussed the need for dedicated infrastructure comprising separate facilities for cyclists. This includes segregated lanes, bicycle parking stands at railway stations, shopping malls and public places, special signage and traffic signals for bicycles. 

Activists said dedicated infrastructure for bicycle riders would allow faster short-distance journeys (between one and six km), which might even be more effective than going by car. Added to this are the health benefits of cycling, they added. 

Activists Fawzan Javed and Colin Christopher, who initiated the move for the meeting, felt that starting a bicycle movement in Bandra would set a precedent for other suburbs to follow. 

Javed is an architect from Mumbai, while Christopher, a student at Columbia University, New York, is currently doing a stint with Pukar, an NGO. “Once the initiative takes off, it will grow and we will have less congestion and pollution on the roads,” said Javed. 

Javed, who has undertaken a project on the bicycle movement across the globe, said it was becoming popular in Asian cities and was already an established mode of transport in European cities. His idea is to have a bicycle lane network in Bandra to enable citizens to ride along freely. 

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Telegraph, UK)

A complaint letter sent to Sir Richard Branson is considered by many to be the world’s funniest passenger complaint letter.

REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at thehands of your corporation.

Look at this Richard. Just look at it: [see image 1, above].

I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?

You don’t get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it’s next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That’s got to be the clue hasn’t it. No sane person would serve a desert with a tomato would they. Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in: [see image 2, above].

I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you’ll be fascinated to hear that it wasn’t custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the desert after all.

Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.

I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

 (Source: Business Week)

As the commercial model of India’s microcar is unveiled, U.S. carmakers would do well to learn from the innovations that brought it about

When Tata Motors (TTM) unveiled a prototype of its Nanomicrocar at the Delhi Auto Show in January 2008, auto executives around the world were aflutter. Quickly, they hustled teams to India to document the planned $2,000 “people’s car.” And industry watchers and innovation experts soon reported on the engineering and supply-chain breakthroughs behind the car.

Some 14 months later, Tata is set to show off the commercial version of the Nano, on Mar. 23. Today, the U.S. auto industry is struggling to survive, with General Motors (GM), once the world’s biggest carmaker, on the brink of bankruptcy. Look beyond the Nano halo and it’s clear that Tata Motors has problems of its own, from the $2.3 billion in debt it took on to purchase Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor (F) last year to the sums sunk into the Nano assembly plant in West Bengal that had to be abandoned. On top of that, there are the Nano competitors in development.

Still, no one disputes that the Nano is innovative on multiple levels—from its engineering to its marketing to its manufacturing. So it’s hard to avoid the question: What can a humbled Detroit learn from the Tata Nano?

A lot. The lessons start with the vision of Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors’ parent, Tata Group, to create an ultralow-cost car for a new category of Indian consumer: someone who couldn’t afford the $5,000 sticker price of what was then the cheapest car on the market and instead drove his family around on a $1,000 motorcycle. “Just in India there are 50 million to 100 million people caught in that automotive chasm,” says vice-president Vikas Sehgal, a principal at Booz & Co. And yet none of the automakers in India were focused on that segment. In that respect, the Nano is a great example of the so-called blue ocean strategy.

ROADS TO GREATNESS

“Great companies are built on creating new markets, not increasing market share in existing ones,” says Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and chief innovation consultant at General Electric (GE), who quickly runs off 10 lessons for Detroit. Among them: U.S. automakers should focus less on incremental improvements to existing cars or adding a new model to the Cadillac line in order to compete against Lexus, and think more broadly about new market opportunities. Where, in other words, are Detroit’s blue oceans?

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Wired; Photo: Associated Press)

(Source: BBC Earth Watch)

So far, just about everyone seems to love the self-styled “world’s cheapest car”, the Tata Nano.

Writing on these pages, Indian motoring journalist Hormazd Sorabjee writes that “It thrilled me with its ‘proper car’ feel”; while for Adil Jal Darukhanawala of zigwheels.com, “The Nano has the makings of a mega winner.”

And what’s not to love? A five-seater car that does about 20 km per litre (that’s 56 MPG in old money) and costs $2,000 – come on! – and it’s not the end of the line, with Bajaj, the company that principally populates South and Southeast Asia’s roads with auto-rickshaws, planning to launch its own tiny car (the Pico?) within two years.

Just about the only people sounding a cautionary note on the tiny Nano’s giant appeal are environmental groups, notably the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

They judge it inappropriate for Indian cities, choked by traffic, where jams mean a journey across town can already be measured in hours.

“Cars may drive growth and aspirations, but they can never meet the commuting needs of urban India. Cars choke cities, harm public health and guzzle more oil.”

CSE’s simple prescription is more investment in mass transit schemes.

Although one can see the logic of their argument, it’s hard to imagine it prevailing.

Many Indian cities already have swarming bus networks and suburban rail networks. They’re slowly being supplemented by true mass transit rail systems – up and running inCalcutta and Delhi, under construction in Mumbai and Bangalore.

(Source: Jalopnik)

Pre-orders are officially being taken today for the Tata Nano in India at an MSRP of 100,000 rupees (just under $2,000). That makes the Nano officially the cheapest automobile in the world.

The on-road price will be a little bit higher, probably around $2,400, once you factor in excise duty, education fees and road tax, along with transportation cost, local taxes, insurance and registration fees and “a lifetime parking fee” (applicable in some locations).

(Source: BBC)

He has worked as a chauffeur for top businessmen in Pune and Mumbai – ferrying them around the country, to important meetings in big, fancy and expensive cars.

He has sat behind the wheels of dozens of cars, from an old British Morris to the Land Rover he’s driving now.  It’s been an honest, hardworking life – albeit austere.

The salary of a driver in India can only afford you so much. Mr Pandurang has worked hard to support his family – putting his children in English language schools, so that they would get opportunities he never had.

He’s never been the kind of man to want anything for himself, working night and day to feed his family instead. But throughout his life, he has had one dream: to own a car of his own.

Last January, Mr Pandurang and his family watched in awe and excitement as the unveiling of the world’s cheapest car was broadcast on television screens across India.

They were sitting in the living room of their modest flat when they first saw Ratan Tata, the boss of the Tata Group, announce on national television that the Nano would be sold for 100,000 Indian rupees – around £2,000 at the current exchange rate.

“I was shocked” says Rakhee, Mr Pandurang’s 24 year old daughter. “It was like God had answered our prayers – we could finally help to make dad’s dream come true.”

(Source:  India Times)

CHENNAI, India:  Chennai metro railway, within a month of obtaining cabinet clearance and awarding contracts for the first phase of construction, touched yet another milestone this week, by employing a European technical consultant for design and supervision of the project. 

Chennai metro rail corporation (CMRL) has awarded the USD 30 million technical consultancy contract to a consortium of five companies named Egis Rail India, led by French transport infrastructure projects company Egis Projects. US-based NYSE listed engineering and architectural design giant Aecom Technology Corporation is part of the consortium. 
While the names of other firms involved in the consortium are not known, an official source confirmed the awarding of the contract to Egis. “The technical consultant will conduct engineering feasibility studies, prepare designs and oversee their execution,” the source said. CMRL, the management consultant, will continue to be the entity tendering construction contracts.

Egis projects, which has been involved in a number of road and rail based projects in Europe, including high speed, light and underground rail lines in France, earns 9% of its revenues from Asia. Its Indian subsidiary Egis India has floated the consortium Egis Rail India, which was one of the two entities, short-listed from six, for the final race to the Chennai metro rail consultancy contract. 

Click here to read the entire article.