In a bizarre move, the Arvind Kejriwal Government on Friday decided to restrict plying of private vehicles bearing odd and even registration numbers to alternate days from January 1 in the national Capital aiming to curb alarming air pollution after the Delhi High Court compared the city to a “gas chamber” on Thursday.
If implemented, Delhi will become first such city in India to have such a scheme and the only one after Beijing in Asia.
Also, the Government is mulling to allow movement of trucks only after 11 pm as they slow down overall vehicular movement which was pointed out to be a major contributing factor to pollution from vehicular emission. The city Government has also decided to make it mandatory for vehicles to have Euro VI standards for vehicular emission from 2017, two years before the Centre’s scheduled introduction of the same.
Chief Secretary KK Sharma said public transport will be significantly augmented to take the load of increasing passengers due to the odd and even number restrictions. All private vehicles even those having registration numbers issued by neighbouring States will have to follow the odd and even number formula, he said.
Emergency services and public transport will not be under the ambit of
the restriction, Delhi Dialogue Commission Vice-Chairperson Ashish Khetan said, while noting that the idea has been borrowed from foreign countries.
The measures were announced following an emergency meeting chaired by CM Arvind Kejriwal on Friday.
Welcoming the Government’s proposals, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) expert Anumita Roy Chowdhury said time has come to take “drastic measures” and people need to support the initiative.
The Government will also have to come out with a detailed implementation strategy now, said Anumita, adding that similar initiatives have worked in places such as Beijing and Mexico which have also been grappling with high levels of pollution. “Some other cities like london and Stockholm have gone for congestion pricing instead,” she said.
However, former Delhi Transport Minister and Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken criticised the move and said comparing this with Beijing is absurd because Delhi having porous borders has a large number of vehicles from the NCR coming in and going out of Delhi every day. “Odd and even number experiment has failed in some cities, including Mexico,” said Maken, adding that the Government should focus on automobile industry, upgrading vehicles to the next Euro level.
There are 88 lakh registered vehicles in Delhi. Besides, three to four lakh vehicles come to Delhi every day from neighbouring States. As per figure, 1,500-1,800 new vehicles are added every day on Delhi’s roads. There are 26 lakh cars, 52.97 lakh two wheelers, 91,840 autorickshaw and 1.54 lakh vehicles that carry goods.
A four-member committee headed by Principal Secretary (Transport) Parimal Rai - to meet on December 8 - has been formed to formulate the scheme, look into implementation and decide its legality.
Principal Secretary (revenue), Principal Secretary (environment) and traffic police are also the part of the committee.
Sharma said the Government has decided to shut down the Badarpur Thermal power station and will move the National Green Tribunal to close the Dadri power plant which falls in Uttar Pradesh.
He said the Government will carry out a massive plantation drive along all arterial roads across the city to curb spread of dust and ensure vacuum cleaning of roads by the Public Works Department from April 1.
Sharma said vehicles without Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates would be strictly barred from plying and entering the city by officials of the Transport Department. “Even vehicles with PUC, but visibly causing pollution would be restricted,” he said.
The recently launched Swachh Delhi app would be modified making it possible for people to send images of biomass burning or other sources of pollution to the concerned authorities, said Sharma, adding, “We have also decided to shut MCD parking lots on the roads that are responsible for slowing down traffic movement.”
To encourage public transport, the Government has been focusing on improving public transport and introduced “Car-Free Day” in select areas. The Government has announced that it will organise ‘Car-Free Day’ across the national capital on January 22.