New Delhi to ration road use by registration number to cut pollution

“Things needed to be sorted out”, he said. We will experiment with it for some time. The announcement came a day after the Delhi High Court issued a severe reprimand to the government for failing to check the city’s disastrous pollution levels and said that living in Delhi was akin to living “in a gas chamber”.

India’s capital will soon ban private cars from its roads on alternate days, according to their registration numbers, in an attempt to improve air quality in the world’s most polluted city. Although Delhi officials said Friday they would increase bus service and extend times for its Metro service, they are still about 10,000 buses short of demand, according to Amit Bhatt, a sustainable transportation expert in New Delhi.

Congress general secretary and spokesperson Shakeel Ahmad said that Arvind Kejriwal government’s decision was aimed at cheap publicity and will harass the common man.

He said tenders will be floated very soon to procure vacuum cleaners from overseas as such machines are not available here.

The city government has also chose 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.

Another alternate suggested is the implementation of Congestion Charges, a la London, where a fee is charged to most motor vehicles (depending on size and emission levels) operating within heavily congested areas during peak hours (weekdays, 7am to 6pm).

Traffic police will also be told to ensure that diesel-guzzling trucks, which transit through the city at night, enter only after 11pm.

The city has been blanketed in grey smog, and while there is no reliable data on respiratory diseases, most doctors in the capital report a sharp spike in pollution-related illness during the winter months.

Taking a dig at Modi’s foreign visits, Kejriwal said ever since he became chief minister, he has not stepped out of Delhi, whereas some people are touring the world.

About his relation with the Lieutenant Governor, Kejriwal said governing is no rocket science but he needs his own space. “Some problems are political and some problems are constitutional”, he said. But day-to-day interference completely saps you.

“The decision may be weird but unless we have a viable alternatives, I will support it. On second thoughts I agree”, wrote another Twitter user.

“The fact that today they are making these decisions is a reflection of the fact they have been pushed a lot by the concern that has exploded in the city”, said Ms Roychaudhary. “People in bureaucracy are good”. After all, most people would be quite happy to leave their cars at home and avoid the trauma of inching through traffic snarls if they could get a fast, smooth and comfortable ride on some public transport. Questioning the lavish lifestyle and the huge bungalows of MLAs with lower salaries, Kejriwal said this move will curb corrupt practices.