As the curtains came down on the odd-even pilot scheme on Friday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed to the people of Delhi to continue observing the car rationing measures “voluntarily”, which the Government claimed has reduced air pollution by up to 25 per cent.
Kejriwal claimed that travelling time on the road reduced to half as there was no congestion and traffic jam on the roads.
“The efficiency of each bus under DTC and clusters has increased during the odd-even scheme and it travelled on an average 220 kilometers per day per bus instead of 150-160 kilometer per day by per bus due to traffic congestion on the roads. Pollution did go down, yes... but there was also less traffic congestion. If you spent four hours on the roads, you could now do the same distance in two hours. Two hours added to your life and the irritation gone. There is a sense of peace in Delhi,” said the CM who expressed gratitude to all stakeholders including Delhi traffic police and Delhi police for implementation of odd-even scheme for 15 days on trial basis. People, Kejriwal said, liked fewer cars on the roads so much that they “are saying it should continue and they are willing to bear other difficulties to keep this rule going.”
“People shared tales with me as to how they got used to good habits like metro and carpooling. I appeal them not to leave those habits from Saturday only because the fine won’t be there. Keep the scheme in force voluntarily because it’s about out health, children’s health and our collective future,” Kejriwal said.
Also, the CM said the measures, unprecedented in Independent India’s history, managed to increase the efficiency of the public transportation system, especially buses, as congestion came down “drastically”.
“Delhi has proved it can match Singapore in discipline and systems. lots of people talk about how great the system is in Singapore, elsewhere... but odd-even proved the same can be done here. People followed the measures not because of the provision of `2,000 penalty for each violation,” Kejriwal stressed.
“It gained widespread support as we took people along,” he said in a Press conference at the Delhi Secretariat, flanked by Transport Minister Gopal Rai and Home Minister Satyender Jain. Transport Minister Gopal Rai said “three factors” have come up in wake of the restrictions, namely reduction in the level of peak pollution, a cut in the average volume of PM 2.5 (fine respirable particles) and the high quantity of pollutants in the border areas.
He said of the 9,144 challans were issued against violators; 2,889 by the Delhi Traffic Police and 6,255 by the Transport Department and sub-divisional magistrates. Rai said 4,500 people availed of the carpool facility provided by the Delhi Government’s PoochhO App.
Kejriwal specially thanked the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court judges who pooled cars to follow the odd-even scheme although they had been exempted from the plan.
The CM said he found gestures like that of the Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, who carpooled to office, and other judges of the Supreme Court and High Court “overwhelming”. The radical scheme, aimed at curbing soaring levels of pollution, came into force on January 1 leading to major cut in volume of cars on the city’s streets amid the deployment of thousands of traffic police personnel and volunteers.
Kejriwal said the Government will decide on the future of the scheme after assessing the impact of its first 15 days at a review meeting on January 18. “When we implement it again, whenever we do that...A decision will be taken only after proper assessment,” he said. The CM also invited people to a thanksgiving event to be held at Chhatrasal Stadium on January 17.
Under the scheme, private cars having odd registration numbers were allowed to ply on odd dates and those with even numbers on even dates. The restriction period was from 8 am to 8 am.