Odd-even plan helped decongest city, says Gopal Rai

Emphasising that the “biggest benefit” of the vehicle-rationing scheme in the national capital has been congestion-free city, Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai contended on Wednesday that the odd-even scheme was being enforced for a period of 15 days so as to enable the government to collect “sufficient data”.

Mr Rai emphasised that the scheme, which will be in force till January 15, is “surely” bringing down the level of pollutants in areas across the city and that a “little trouble has to be borne for big measures”.

He said that all the relevant data will be produced before the Delhi high court, which has asked the AAP government to consider if the scheme can be restricted to a week. “There has been minimal impact at the border areas but vehicular pollution and PM 2.5 is surely coming down in the interior areas of the city,” Mr Rai told reporters.

He said that the government will apprise the court that it will be able to undertake a “proper analysis” with 15 days’ data in hand. “We decided to make it a 15-day-long programme so that we gather sufficient data which can be better looked into and prepare further blueprint,” he said.

On the court’s observation that public transport was “inadequate”, resulting in “inconvenience” to the public, Mr Rai said that the government has increased Metro frequency, augmented the fleet of buses and developed technology for buses. “People are carpooling to save the lives of their children and entire Delhi is unitedly cooperating with the government in this movement,” he said.

Terming as “vague” the status report submitted by the government on the implementation of the scheme, the high court on Wednesday sought information about the pollution caused by taxis running on diesel and CNG which have been kept out of the purview of the odd-even formula. It also sought data related to changes in the pollution level between January 1 and 7, the day the scheme will have completed a week.