Though there were some reports of traffic congestion on a few key roads during the peak hours, the second phase of the odd-even scheme by and large cleared Monday’s real test as it considerably reduced the number of private cars when Delhi got back to work after a long weekend.
While Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that people were voluntarily following the second phase of odd-even scheme and there was no congestion on the roads in the Capital, Transport Minister Gopal Rai said, “The reports so far are very encouraging… Barring some exceptions, the outcome of the scheme has been quite positive.”
Rai also said that the Delhi Government will seek public opinion on when to start the third-round of odd-even scheme once the second phase of the 16-day-long road-rationing plan gets over.
A total of 710 challans were issued for violation of odd- even scheme on Monday, out of which, 256 violations were booked by the traffic police and 454 by the enforcement wing of the Transport Department.
Commuters faced long queues at metro stations during the peak hours. However, according to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), there wasn’t any significant rise in the ridership as 22.73 lakh commuters travelled on the metro network till 8 pm compared to 22.53 lakh commuters on last Monday.
However, heavy traffic was reported from some parts of the city during the peak hours. While the traffic moved at a snail’s pace on Vikas Marg towards ITO intersection during the morning peak hours, it was the same situation on Tilak Mark towards ITO intersection during the evening peak hours. Slow-moving traffic was also reported on the Ring Road from South-Extension till Bhikaji Cama Place in the evening.
“Apart from that, reports of heavy traffic were also received from Rao Tula Ram Marg, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road (near Khanpur), Mayapuri Flyover, Geeta Colony, Delhi Cantonment towards Dhaula Kuan and NH8 towards Gurgaon. During the evening, there was heavy traffic at Transport Nagar-Samaypur Badli and Azadpur DTC terminal as well,” said a traffic official.
Meanwhile, on the question of inconvenience faced by parents in dropping and picking up their children from school, Gopal Rai said that car-pooling and strengthening public transport system will help in smooth implementation of the scheme and sorting out the problem of ferrying schoolchildren.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues Satyendra Jain carpooled with Transport Minister Gopal Rai in his car to reach Delhi Secretariat which houses offices of all Cabinet Ministers. Social Welfare Minister Sandeep Kumar reached his office by bus while Water Minister Kapil Mishra came by Metro. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia reached his office in an even numbered car with a UP registration number, which was provided by an event organiser of Noida.
As many as 4,497 buses, including 468 contract carriage buses under Paryavaran Bus Sewa, were deployed by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) to ferry passengers. While the ridership figures for Monday were not available, DTC buses had ferried around 37 lakh passengers on the first day of the odd-even phase II on Friday and around 39 lakh on Saturday. The figure is expected be significantly higher for Monday being a working day.
Rai said that the Government is trying to strengthen the public transport system. “We are constructing 12 more bus depots and are buying 1,000 new buses which will start arriving from the first week of May… We will also consider demands of the schools for more buses after the new ones arrive so that more schoolchildren use them,” Rai said.
He also made an appeal to people to help each other in dropping and picking their neighbors’ children in the meantime. “The reports so far indicate that 90 per cent of the parents smoothly picked and dropped their school-going children. But some people may have faced problems. I urge parents, especially women, to help one another and drop other children to their homes,” he said.
When asked about the BJP’s accusation that the Government is spending large amount of money on advertisements for odd-even scheme, Rai said that the Government will spend as much money on the scheme as it is the demand of the hour since it’s a matter of people’s life. “We are not doing it for ourselves. We are doing it for the people of Delhi. We will advertise it even more and spend all the money required for odd-even scheme because it is a matter of the life of the residents of Delhi,” he said.