Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced that the Odd-Even vehicle scheme will be implemented from November 4-15 to tackle the rising menace of air pollution around the time of Diwali.
“If you enforce Odd-Even for a long time, the implementation becomes troublesome. As of now, Odd-Even will only be restricted to this time frame,” said Kejriwal.
Emergency vehicles will not be subject to this.
Apart from the Odd-Even vehicle scheme, Kejriwal announced plans to buy electric buses and invited corporate to invest in luxury buses. He said that 1,000 electric buses will be introduced to the national capital. He also said that a bus aggregator policy will be announced soon.
He also asserted that Supreme Court guidelines during Diwali on firecrackers will be sternly enforced. Kejriwal also urged people of Delhi to take part in plantation drives.
The Chief Minister further said that there has been a visible improvement in Delhi’s traffic ever since the new Motor Vehicle Act has been implemented.
Delhi Police issued 3,900 challans to traffic rule violators after the amended motor vehicles act came into effect on September 1.
The Parliament in July passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seeks to tighten road traffic regulations such as the issuance of driving licence and imposed stricter penalties for violations in an attempt to improve road safety.
Under the new law, people not wearing helmets or seat-belts will be fined Rs 1,000, which was Rs 100 earlier, while those driving without a licence can be fined Rs 5,000 or face three-month jail.
The new law allows the central government to order for recall of motor vehicles if a defect in the vehicle may cause damage to the environment, or the driver, or other road users.
The Odd-Even scheme was first implemented by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on 1 January 2016 as an anti-pollution measure for the first time in India’s history.
Under the Odd-Even vehicle scheme, vehicles are allowed to ply across the city based on the last digit of their registration plates. Private cars registration plates ending with odd number are allowed to ply on odd dates and those ending with even numbers on even dates.
In 2015, Delhi High Court had directed the Centre and state governments to come up with a comprehensive action plan to put a check on city’s “alarming” pollution rate. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government implemented the scheme to bring down the city’s air pollution levels.