Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday launched the city government’s “Red Light On, Gaadi Off” campaign from ITO intersection to reduce vehicular pollution in the national capital.

He said the city government is working on a war footing to implement the 15-point winter action plan announced by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently.

Rai said biomass burning, dust, and vehicular pollution are the main contributors of pollution in the city.

“Along with this, an anti-dust campaign is also being run. Bio-decomposers are being sprayed in 5,000 acres to prevent stubble burning,” he said.

The minister also explained why switching off engines at red lights is important. “A survey of the Petroleum Conservation Research Association states that vehicle pollution can be reduced by 15-20 per cent if all the engines are switched off at red light.

“Consider this real-life situation. When someone steps out of his house with a vehicle, he passes 8-10 crossings during his journey. If the duration of the red light is 2 minutes and we do not switch off our engine, we are burning fuel unnecessarily for 25-30 minutes. It is only our mindset that when the red light turns green and if our engine is not on, other vehicles will overtake us,” he said.

Rai said the “Red Light On, Gaadi Off” campaign will be run at Barakhamba Road on October 28 and Chandgi Ram Akhara intersection on October 30. On November 2, the campaign will be run in all 70 assembly constituencies.

He informed that on November 3, an awareness campaign regarding the same will be conducted among children in schools through
2,000 eco clubs.

The AAP minister said when the Delhi government conceptualized the  campaign in 2020, it was done on the basis of several studies conducted across India.

“In 2019, scientists of CSIR and Central Road Research Institute, which come under the Ministry of Science and Technology, conducted a study on petroleum conservation. According to the study, if vehicle engine is not shut on a red light at a particular four-way, there is an increase of pollution level by 9 per cent on that four-way,” he said.

Meanwhile, the air quality in Delhi continued in the ‘poor’ category as the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) reached 256 Thursday morning, according to data from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).