The Delhi Transport Minister on Sunday issued a notification saying that the electric vehicles/cars are exempted from the odd -even scheme. This is to clear the confusion among the commuters, especially the e-car users. The road rationing scheme will be rolled out from Monday to 15th November. Also, women with children of 12 years age and two wheelers are exempted during this period.
"Odd-even restrictions shall be in place during the period November 4, 2019 to November 15, 2019 (except Sunday November 10, 2019). As Delhi is a capital city and offices of Government of India as well as Diplomatic Missions are located in Delhi, certain high Constitutional Functionaries as well as vehicles driven by women have been kept outside the purview of odd-even restrictions," said the transport Minister in the notification.
"While considering exemptions to certain categories of vehicles, issue of enforcement on Delhi roads has been of paramount concern. It is, however, noted that there are only less than 1,000 non-transport electric cars registered in Delhi. There may not be many enforcement issues if these cars are kept outside the odd-even restrictions. Their presence on Delhi roads is not likely to cause any congestion and consequent pollution. It has, therefore, been decided to exempt the electric vehicles from the odd-even restrictions," it read further.
However, this year the CNG vehicles are not exempted from the odd even scheme. The odd even scheme was implemented in 2016.
The Transport Minister also inspected the training and briefing of 5,000 Civil Defence volunteers who will be deployed across the city at traffic intersections and red light to generate awareness among the commuters about the road rationing scheme. The scheme was implemented in the year 2016.
"Civil defence volunteers played an important role during the last Odd Even programmes in Delhi. They assist the traffic police and guide the public. The Government recognises and admires their role. To ensure better implementation of this scheme, jackets, placards and other relevant material has been handed over to these volunteers, which is required for their duties during this road rationing campaign," said Gahlot.
Apart from this, the Government has hired 2,000 additional buses to facilitate the movement of commuters and Delhi Metro will also have additional 61 trips during the road rationing scheme. Further, the staggered timings have also been implemented for the all the Government officials excluding the private companies. Some section of officials will come at 9:30 am and others at 10:30 am.
With 61 additional trips to meet the shortfall of cars, the total trips by Delhi Metro will be 5,100 trips per day via its 294 trains. DMRC will further display electronic messages on the odd-even scheme at various metro stations. Further, to ensure the smooth functioning of all the metro lines and trains, 35 teams will be deployed at all the major metro stations. Additional manpower will also be deployed to manage the ticketing system due to the increasing inflow of people during the odd-even implementation.
The government has also increased the penalty fees from Rs 2000 to Rs 4000 for violating the violating the laid down rules during these days. This year, four departments - Sub District Magistrates (SDMs), tehsildars of the Revenue department, Delhi Traffic Police, the Transport department, and assistant traffic inspectors teams has been authorised to levy challans or fines the violators.
AAP government has further advised cab aggregators and auto-rickshaws such as OLA, Uber to cooperate during the odd-even period and do not indulge in surge prices.
Delhi police has also identified 200 traffic points where the scheme will be implemented."This has been done in coordination with transport department also. Challan will be done on the spot through echallan system," said the police.