Delhi to adopt Beijing-style vehicle restriction to curb pollution

“Media picked only odd-even number plate announcement we made, ignored other announcements”, he said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2015. “The government needs to ensure people get their vehicles maintained, whatever the age”. It said that the pollution level of Delhi has reached “alarming” proportion and people are “living in a gas chamber”.

Sources said the Delhi Metro, which is operating trains at the peak hour frequency of two minutes and 30 seconds, will be incapable of accommodating any significant increase in ridership till completion of its phase-III project. He said the Delhi Transport Corporation will have to press more buses into services which could be done by hiring more vehicles. Lakhs of Delhiites are still dependent on other means of transport, including private vehicles, for their daily commute.

The transport department would run extra buses, he added.

The chief minister said that from 1 January, all PWD roads will be vacuum-cleaned and both sides of roads will have flower beds in order to reduce dust. He also said the government has formed a three-member committee, to be headed by Transport Commissioner, to execute the decision. It is an aggregate estimate of the distance travelled by vehicles and the principle unit of measurement to assess road traffic volume. The permanent version of this rule, implemented thereafter, was adequately relaxed – this rule dictated that a vehicle with a registration number ending in a particular digit was banned from using the road for only one day of the week.

Taking a swipe at Kejriwal-led AAP government, environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said such a measure can only be implemented if it does some “jaadu” (magic) to launch Euro VI compliant vehicles by the stated date.

Kejriwal had on Saturday said the plan to allow odd and even numbered vehicles on alternate days on Delhi roads from January 1 was an “experiment” to deal with the “emergency situation” in the city.

Chief Minister Aravind Kejriwal has announced that odd and even number private vehicles will ply on alternate days starting from the New Year, a restriction tried and tested in Beijing.

“This is being done for the interests of the citizens and the public”, Delhi state’s chief secretary, K.K. Sharma, said in a meeting with reporters.

China has declared a “war on pollution”, with Beijing pledging billions to clean up its act, close coal-fired power plants and cut new auto registrations.