Lack of equipment hits Gurgaon car-free day

As Gurgaon observed 14th car-free day on Tuesday, the city’s police faced several odds, including the lack of equipment to monitor pollution level, in making the drive a success.

With each car-free day, the Gurgaon police has been boasting of reducing the air pollution by up to 15 to 18 per cent. But it lacked authenticity, considering the fact that the district administration has no portable device to calculate air pollution. The Gurgaon police is totally dependent on the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) for calculating air pollution at only chosen stretches.

But the HSPCB has just one device installed at Vikas Sadan in Civil Lines area, having limited reach of 2 to 3 km, but the chosen car-free stretches are situated beyond its sensing radius.

Gurgoan police spokesperson Hawa Singh says that the calculation of air pollution is based on calculations of corporate houses.

“It is true that HSPCB has only one device and hence we have asked the corporate houses associated with this initiative to update us about how many fewer cars are used on car- free day. Our calculation on air pollution is based on assumption of less number of cars used on the day,” Mr Hawa Singh said.

Moreover, lack of coordination between other departments is also hampering the initiative.

Currently, the civil administration and civic agencies of Gurgaon are not participating in the initiative. On the 14th car- free day on Tuesday, there were few traffic officials even as NGO workers participated in awareness campaign for auto drivers.

However, majority of environmentalists appreciate the initiative of the Gurgaon police and say that they have at least thought about saving the environment. “The car- free day initiative of the Gurgaon police has been endorsed by many other cities, including Delhi. Even the Delhi government initiative of odd-even formula is appreciable,” said Charanjeet Singh, a local environmentalist.

On the 14th car-free day on Tuesday, a training programme for auto drivers was organised at the traffic tower by the traffic police.