The Kejriwal government has put in place an elaborate plan for the 15-day odd-even car rationing scheme starting from Friday.
The Kejriwal government has put in place an elaborate plan for the 15-day odd-even car rationing scheme starting from Friday. Over 2,000 traffic personnel, 580 enforcement officials and over 5,000 civil defence volunteers will be deployed on the roads of the national capital daily for the next fortnight.
“An enforcement plan has been chalked out under which the city has been divided into 11 zones for the implementation of the scheme. Each zone will have 10 sectors. One mobile enforcement team will operate in each sector,” city transport minister Gopal Rai said.
Meanwhile, Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar, commenting on air pollution, said it will be reduced by 90 per cent by 2020 with the introduction of Bharat-VI emission norms.
“The government has decided to bring forward the date of launch for Bharat-VI emission norms from 2024 to 2020. Only Bharat-VI compliant vehicles will ply on roads by then. It will be implemented throughout the country. This will bring down the air pollution by 90 per cent,” he said on the sidelines of a function.
“Till then, all states are free to implement their own measures and policies,” Mr Javadekar said, referring to the second phase of the odd-even vehicle rationing scheme in Delhi.
The Delhi transport minister said that 588 officials from the city transport department’s enforcement wing will be deployed after being divided into teams. Also, a 20-member special task force has been set up to look into matters reported by the mobile teams.
The enforcement teams have a 10-point focus chart, comprising of areas near the ISBTs, railway stations, health institutions, trade centres, district courts, city borders, education institutions, major traffic intersections, IGI Airport and crowded office buildings, Mr Rai said.
Some 2,000 Delhi traffic police personnel will be deployed daily. The traffic department has identified 200 intersections where its personnel will be deployed in teams, whose sizes will depend on the volume of traffic at each intersection.
During the 15-day period, apart from enforcement officials and traffic personnel, 5,331 civil defence volunteers will also remain deployed at 205 strategic points to ensure implementation of the scheme. In the last phase (January 1-15), around 4,000 such volunteers had been pressed into service, Mr Rai said. Also, 321 wardens have been entrusted with the duty of ensuring coordination between the volunteers and the AAP government.
Mr Rai said the Kejriwal government has not been able to find a solution to the problem of cars picking up children after school hours during the scheme. The cars with children in school uniforms are exempted from the odd-even scheme. However, parents have sought clarificiations over the fate of the cars going to pick them up.
Referring to a recently-conducted study by the AAP government, Mr Rai said when it comes to picking up children after school hours, around 85 per cent drivers are women, who are already exempted under the scheme. For the remaining, people should resort to carpooling.
When asked why a CNG sticker or certification-like arrangement could not be made for such cars, Mr Rai said that monitoring was not possible at the moment.
