The Centre has armed itself with a new study report, prepared by IIT Delhi last month, to push for further stay or revocation of the National Green Tribunal’s order banning the plying of 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles in Delhi/NCR. The study conducted on Mathura Road — a major link road connecting Delhi to Faridabad — shows 17 per cent contribution of all vehicles in air pollution. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will present it in its fresh petition before the NGT on Monday
“A latest study by researchers from Indian Institute of Technology on Mathura Road shows only a small 17 per cent contribution of all vehicles in polluting the air, the rest 83 per cent pollution comes from other sources,” said an official from MoRTH, adding, “Highly sophisticated instruments were used to study the air pollution arising out of all vehicular traffic.”
“Even in our previous petition before the NGT, we had said that vehicular pollution was only a small part of the problem, which can be tackled. We can put in place standards like regular vehicle tests, pollution under control (PUC) tests, and stringent fuel quality standards among other things but imagine the costs involved with buying new vehicles, particularly for the middle classes,” he said.
The official said that the Government is also aiming to impose Bharat V fuel and emission norms by 2018 and Bharat VI by 2021, which will help in reducing air pollution. In the plea before the NGT, the Government also plans to present other studies, which show that brick kilns, industry power plants and domestic sources contribute similar amounts of small particles (PM2.5) to the atmosphere.
“In fact, studies specific to the national Capital dated 2012 show that the main contributors of sulphur dioxide (SO2) are brick kilns, industry and power plants and for Nitro dioxide (NO2) primary culprits are transport, gen sets and industry,” said the official. The affidavit prepared by the Ministry also emphasises that that construction (including brick kilns), industry and power plants contribute significantly to the quality of air: 50 per cent of Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) and 89 per cent of SO2.
In their previous petition, the Government had presented a study before the NGT which showed that there are only 7 per cent vehicles above 10 years, which together contribute negligible pollution, hence banning them was not a solution.
On April 20, this year, the NGT order was upheld by the Supreme Court. This is Centre’s second plea to revoke the ban before the NGT, but if the order is upheld, it will impact 1,18,773 private vehicles and 34,659 commercial vehicles in the national Capital alone. Besides, more than 5 lakh vehicles enter Delhi every day of which around 50,000-75,000 are trucks and about 2,500 are state transport buses. All these run on diesel and are likely to run into trouble. The Centre will push for a further stay or revocation of the order in public interest.