Electric Vehicles

A Sustainable Way Out for Vehicular Air Pollution in Dhaka City

Abstract

Vehicular Air Pollution (VAP) is a significant reason why the quality of the air of Dhaka city is being
worsened day by day. Vehicles using fossil fuels emit harmful gases and particles detrimental to
human health. This paper is a qualitative study based on secondary data from an array of sources
endeavored to find out a sustainable solution to this problem using Multi-Level Perspective (MLP)
of transition studies. Air pollution problem and its dimensions have been explored here as a sociotechnical landscape which is a driving force to make a transition happen in existing vehicle fuel
regime in Dhaka. Later, the response of government to address vehicular air pollution and the
success and failure of those initiatives were analyzed. Primarily, those initiatives were not proved
that much effective and sustainable. After that Electric Vehicle (EV) was introduced as a potential
sustainable solution for VAP in Dhaka. Some policy initiatives with the introduction of electric bus
service as niche initiative was provided for wider diffusion of Electric Vehicles in Dhaka. At last,
main challenges and recommendations in the way of adopting electric vehicles are incorporated.