Significant sections of Delhi let out a collective sigh of relief as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s odd-even numbered car scheme ended amid conflicting views on whether the project caused a gigantic inconvenience to the public and exposed the inadequacy of the public transport system or yielded some good and brought about a change in mindset.
As infrastructure cannot be erected overnight, citizens suffering the non-performance of successive regimes were doubly penalized as those commuting in private vehicles were thrust upon the overstretched metro and bus services. Even as a controlled project – schools were closed for winter break and several exemptions had been made to various categories of citizens – the scheme was too impractical to produce results.
Kejriwal’s doggedness in implementing the idea once it seized his imagination is reminiscent of former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s obstinately pushing the costly stupidity called the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS), from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand, which placed road dividers and bus stands on a fiercely congested road, causing accidents, more air pollution, and traffic problems. Kejriwal’s promise to remove this white elephant – which Dikshit later admitted was badly designed – contributed to his electoral sweep last year.
Kejriwal’s own Tughlakian moment came with the odd-even policy, a top-down approach to solving the capital’s air quality. This quixotic scheme – tried with varying levels of success in cities like Beijing, Athens, Santiago, Manila, Sao Paulo, La Paz, San Jose, Quito, Mexico City and Bogota – did not succeed because the government had not done its homework.
There was no understanding of the multiple causes of pollution in the city, namely the different types of vehicles, road and construction dust (a major source of suspended particulate matter in the air), diesel generators, thermal power plants, to name the most obvious. The Government has no data about the numbers of vehicles in the city, the amount of emissions from each type of vehicle, nor are there adequate laboratories in the country to seriously analyze air pollution levels in any city.
Then, CNG vehicles (buses, cars) are considered non-polluting by the government. In 2001, the Bhure Lal committee brought the city’s bus service to a halt by forcing all buses and autos off the roads until they switched to CNG, creating nightmarish queues at the scanty CNG stations and inconveniencing the whole city. But the Supreme Court backed the measure, just as it supported the Kejriwal experiment.
Now, as fear of more odd-even days lurks on the horizon, one wonders if the Government and Supreme Court care that an important bi-product of CNG is nitrogen oxide, which is produced when one heats air. When this enters the atmosphere, it forms nitric acid and particulates which are extremely harmful. Nitrogen oxides are produced by all CNG vehicles, which are clearly not a magical solution. It is pertinent that a government-commissioned study by IIT Kanpur has not been released, allegedly because it reveals facts that make the government uncomfortable.
Many citizens have been angered by the Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur’s comments on car-pooling and bus-travel by Supreme Court judges, as judges live in government housing and travel to the same destination, unlike most citizens. A worthwhile move would be to ensure that all Government cars are used only by the official to whom they are assigned, for official purposes, and never by family.
Not surprisingly, a study by data journalism website, IndiaSpend reported that air-pollution levels in Delhi rose 15% during the 15-day period (January 1 to 15, 2016) of the state government’s odd-even measure over the previous 15 days in December 2015. This is because vehicular congestion rose due to the increase in 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, taxis and private buses.
Now, Kejriwal is talking of dedicated elevated bus corridors, which means special bus flyovers (like BRT) that will rise and descend upon the same congested roads, making travel a bigger nightmare. That would be replicating the mistake made and that too with compound interest!
Abplive.in, 18 January 2016
http://www.abplive.in/blog/kejriwal-fails-to-see-hes-on-tughlakian-path
