Vehicles spew 18 per cent PM 2.5 in the peak evening hours
Traffic congestion is the major contributor of air pollution in the National Capital. According to the Decision Support System (DSS) of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, for Air Quality Management in Delhi, emission from transportation accounts contributed to around 11.2 percent air pollution on Monday.
According to a study by IIT Kanpur, the contribution from the local on-road transport sector to diurnal mean PM 2.5 is largest (18%) during the evening traffic peak. It is dominated by contributions from two- and three-wheelers (50%) followed by heavy-duty vehicles (30%), which also collectively represent 60-70% of the total on-road transport sector at any hour of the day.
Breakdown of vehicles and ongoing construction works by agencies like Delhi Metro, Delhi Jal Board and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) added woes to the congestion, causing inconvenience to daily office goers in the morning and deteriorating air pollution. Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, Mehrauli-Gurugram Road, Netaji Subhash Marg, Wazirabad Road, Raja Garden Road, Kashmere Gate ISBT, Sadar Bazar, Chirag Dilli, roads surroundings major markets including Sarojini Nagar, Chandni Chowk, Lajpat Nagar, Kamla Nagar were among those areas witnessed heavy traffic on Monday.
These stretches are the busiest roads known for heavy traffic flow during the week. Lakhs of people commute in and from Delhi to Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad daily.
Neighbouring Noida has been consistently contributing between 10 and 11 percent to Delhi’s pollution, while Ghaziabad’s share ranges from 5 to 10 percent, as per the DSS -IITM data. Bulandshahr, a district in Uttar Pradesh around 110 km from Delhi, adds a noteworthy six to nine percent.
Meanwhile, Gurugram and Faridabad in Haryana contribute somewhere between 1.5 and 3 percent and 3 and 5 percent, respectively. DSS, which identifies and forecasts the sources of pollution for the national capital, now has an updated inventory that would help in improving the efficiency of its forecast.
As of March 31, 2023, Delhi had 79.5 lakh vehicles, including 20.7 lakh private cars. As per the Statistical Handbook 2023, Delhi has 20,71,115 registered cars and jeeps; 52,94,900 motorcycles and scooters; 93,654 auto-rickshaws; and 1,18,506 e-rickshaws that provide last-mile connectivity. Data also shows that the number of taxis came down from 85,079 in 2021-22 to 83,278 in 2022-23.
The number of vehicles in Delhi has decreased due to the Delhi government’s ban on diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years. The number of vehicles in Delhi has increased by about 21 times in the last three decades, while the road length has only doubled.
