The AAP government will continue with the odd-even scheme for a period of 15 days as planned, transport minister Gopal Rai on Thursday said, asserting that the mindset of 90 per cent of people have ch
The AAP government will continue with the odd-even scheme for a period of 15 days as planned, transport minister Gopal Rai on Thursday said, asserting that the mindset of 90 per cent of people have changed due to the scheme.
Mr Rai’s remark came a day after the Delhi high court asked the AAP government to consider if the scheme can be restricted to a week. Most prominent pollutant in Delhi’s air, PM 2.5, has “come down” by around 25 per cent as compared to December’s figures, the government said.
He said that the city’s air quality would have been “worse” had the measure not been in place. The average quantity of PM 2.5, fine respirable particulate matter, was 245 micrograms per cubic metre that falls in the “very poor” category, IMD said.
In all the 18 locations, mainly in the city’s interior where the government collected samples from Wednesday, PM 2.5 levels were recorded less than 300 (ug/m3) while in nine of these areas, they were recorded at less than 200.
Private weather forecasting agency Skymet, in its forecast, said that foggy conditions may return to Delhi in the next few days accompanied by light rain due to a fresh western disturbance. Fog aggravates air quality as particles get stuck to the moisture subsequently turning it into smog, an IMD official said.
Mr Rai said, according to scientists working in the field of air pollution, average reduction in PM 2.5 levels has been between 100-150 units compared to December. “Myth is being propagated on the levels of pollution. Our sampling data has a different story to tell. However, the scheme has had no major effect at border areas where PM 10 levels are extremely high. PM 10, in any case, is not caused by vehicular pollution. It is mainly a production of construction dust,” Mr Rai said. The safe limits of PM 2.5 and PM 10, microscopic particles that can enter and embed deep into the lungs and subsequently bloodstream, are 60 and 100 respectively.
“The level of PM 2.5 ranged between 400-465 in average in December. It has come down by about 100 units. If odd-even was not implemented the situation would have been worse since half the cars are off the roads and petrol, diesel consumption have come down by about 40 per cent,” Mr Rai said.
Four stations of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), namely R K Puram, Mandir Marg, IHBAS, and NSIT identified PM 2.5 as the most prominent pollutant. Air quality was ‘severe’ at those areas at 7 pm. The hourly PM 2.5 concentration graph of Centre’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) rose from around 10 am, showing a spike. Noon onward, the air also became hazy. Delhi Pollution Control Committee’s (DPCC) real time average data of its static stations, Anand Vihar, Mandir Marg, Punjabi Bagh and R K Puram had PM 2.5 around 413, seven times above the safe limit. Sharing its observations, private agency ‘SparkTG’ said that the mornings are more polluted than evenings with respect to work hours and that west Delhi has “turned out to be the most polluted region in Delhi while South Delhi the least during the odd-even run”. “On an average January 7 seems to be the most polluted day since January 1. Overall pollution level through the six days has been moderate,” it added.
According to the transport minister, government has taken the decision of introducing odd-even scheme as per law and won’t be able to come out with such experiment again and again after 15 days. Mr Rai said that since odd-even scheme has come into force, 80 per cent of people, who used cars for their work, are carpooling.
He further said the government would apprise the court that it will be able to undertake a “proper analysis” with 15 days’ data in hand. “The odd-even scheme will continue for 15 days as government has taken this decision as per law. We won’t be able to introduce such experiment again and again. We want to analysis data of 15 days so that we will confidently take decision so as to reduce pollution in Delhi,” Mr Rai said, adding that the car-rationing scheme has been introduced with practical approach.
The minister said that the reduction in pollution and traffic is different thing, but the mindset of 90 per cent of people have changed due to odd-even scheme which is a big achievement for the government. Mr Rai and Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain today held a review meeting on odd-even scheme with officials from different departments.
“Officers have submitted a report on the service of public transport. Metro has a capacity of ferrying 32 lakh passengers every day. Besides, 40-45 lakh people are travelling in DTC buses, but buses have still capacity of ferrying 8-10 lakh additional passengers. Buses are plying empty for around two and a half hours. We are getting good response from the people regarding odd-even scheme,” he said.
