New Delhi, June 4: Delays in pushing alternative technologies to fossil fuels and low priority to public transport have contributed to India’s burgeoning fuel import bill that prompted the government to hike fuel prices today, researchers have said.

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

The 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.

“That’s about 15 per cent of the total fuel consumed in Delhi going waste at traffic intersections,” said Purnima Parida, a transport planning specialist at the Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi, who led the study.

An engine needs to be cut off if the wait at a traffic light is more than 15 seconds, she said. Some cities in India have installed timers at intersections, but most are yet to implement this, said an officer with the Petroleum Conservation Research Association.

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 roadmap 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.

A senior official in the renewable energy ministry declined comment on whether the 5 per cent ethanol-petrol blend had been successfully implemented. “Ask the petroleum ministry... it was that ministry’s proposal,” the official said.

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

“We’re heading into a fuel crisis,” said Onkar Nath Srivastava, professor of physics at the Banaras Hindu University who had unveiled a prototype hydrogen-powered motorbike several years ago. “We have a hydrogen roadmap, but the private industry doesn’t appear interested enough,” Srivastava said.

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

“Cars in India are being subsidised in a big way,” said Girish Sant, coordinator of Prayas Energy Group, a non-government agency in Pune, monitoring energy economics. “Cars don’t pay enough for the amount of road space they use,” he said.

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,” Sant said. “But this is not happening.”