It is an undeniable fact that the transport sector in India is one of the rapid growing sectors contributing around 6.7% in the GDP and the share is expected to reach at 12% by 2026. The road transport forms a strong backbone of the transport sector in the country.
This paper is an attempt to understand the current policy landscape of the Indian transport sector and its plans to transition to a sustainable growth paradigm through assessing the energy demand and emissions in the long-term scenario. The assessment is done through development of a comprehensive road transport model, which takes each of the vehicle segments and technology types into account under the broad categories of passenger and freight vehicles. Accordingly, depending upon the technology penetration, the gaps and barriers are highlighted along with a line of recommendations to overcome the challenges for a low carbon development of the transport sector in India.