In the wake of the recent astronomical surge in air pollution levels, it has become necessary to analyse the shortcomings of preventive and corrective measures currently in place. There is also room to look back on what could have been done in the last 10-15 years – but was not — and the measures that need to be in place year-long, so that knee jerk reactions are not the only recourse when crisis strikes during winter months.

A comprehensive air pollution mitigation plan in this regard will be successful only when makeshift arrangements like a graded action plan are not required and can be done away with. The Graded Action Plan is mostly restrictive in nature and falls short of accounting for the herculean effort required by implementing agencies, which are under-resourced even during normal day-to-day monitoring. Hence, a comprehensive plan prepared for 5-15 years after thorough review of available and forecast resources at hand would be the right approach.

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Delhi introduced Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in 1998 after the Supreme Court order banning buses, three-wheelers and taxis using any other fuel by 2001, while also mandating the introduction of 70 CNG stations. Today after nearly 20 years there are 326 CNG stations operated by Indraprastha Gas Limited across the National Capital Region (NCR)- Delhi. However, amidst growing population and increased consumption, including ownership of vehicles, the benefits of CNG have been exhausted, especially in the last 10 years. Pollution levels today are far worse than in 1998.

The government’s long-term plan in this regard should have been, aside from the imposition of Euro/Bharat emissions norms, to introduce cleaner fuel options every 10 years. This should have been done alongside phasing out availability of traditional fuel options like diesel or petrol from NCR. However, no new fuel options have been introduced after CNG. A phased and spatially rationalised approach, directing oil companies to replace diesel refueling stations with CNG or electric recharging points would facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles, as happened in the case of company-fitted CNG cars and would work towards a reduction in use of diesel cars by itself without requiring a ban on sale or purchase.

However, considering that regional and national level freight movement is diesel-based, the phasing out of diesel should be facilitated with the development of Freight Consolidation Centres (FCCs) along the highways at the NCR borders for transferring freight from diesel to CNG or electric vehicles. No fresh land acquisition would be required if existing truck terminals are redesigned and used as FCCs. This would allow the freighters to either opt for freight consolidation at the FCCs or switch to fleets operated on cleaner fuels within and around the NCR. Further, the saving in diesel subsidy could be transferred to industries to phase out furnace oil.

From the public transport perspective, allocating more land for depots to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), only promotes urban sprawl and inefficient land utilisation. In a city where real estate is among the world’s most expensive, allowing parking of buses in open land in the middle of high-rises is ludicrous. Advisors to DTC and Government should adapt Chapter 19, Transit Oriented Development (TOD) of Master Plan of Delhi -2021, so that bus depots can be developed vertically, creating more space for parking and maintenance as well as office space for revenue enhancement.

Models adopted by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for TOD and National Highway Authority of India for its highway development programme through the public-private-partnership (PPP) route could be adapted by DTC. Further, the green tax collected by the government should not be handed over to DTC for purchase of buses without performance benchmarking in terms of asset utilisation, improved frequency and reduced downtime. DTC should not be allowed to go on burning cash and acquiring land without improved coverage, service and ridership. Accountability on this score should be promoted while also providing the corporation greater autonomy in tariffs and other matters involving revenue, such as advertisement and space rentals.

For the dust rising from construction, one needs to look at how large construction sites have been functioning without adhering to contract and tender norms. The occupational health and safety norms for all large construction sites mandate control of dust in and around the sites, e.g. trucks are not supposed to exit the site without tyres being cleaned. Ideally, stopping construction work at sites based on particulate matter (PM) level should not even come within the graded action plan and penalties should be levied both on the client and the contractor for breaching safety norms as per construction site health and safety norms and guidelines agreed upon at the time contracts are signed.

In case such guidelines are not part of the contract then the government should work towards making them mandatory. If they are part of the contract and not being adhered to, then monitoring agency should check and penalise violations year around. High PM level gone unchecked for construction sites is also hazardous for people directly involved and should be a reason for concern irrespective of the time of the year.

Overall, the idea of a comprehensive mitigation plan should not be to restrict vehicular movement or construction but to make exploitation of resources and abuse of environment difficult. Declaring petrol and diesel as sunset fuels, slowly phasing them out while introducing electric recharge points and strengthening the CNG network should be the goal. The plan should ensure clean environment for everyone irrespective of one being directly or indirectly involved in the construction process. These comprehensive measures are required not only for Delhi but for all of India’s urban areas.

Rather than waiting for a national level policy though, all states and urban administrations should develop their own comprehensive clean air action plans for 10-15 years. These plans should be revised every two or three years in light of available technologies and concurrent reviews of the success or failure of every measure from environmental and financial perspectives. The real measure of success lies in tackling air pollution through long term comprehensive measures. Graded Action Plan based on PM monitoring levels should not become our only measure, which seems to be the case at present.

(The writer is Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Business School, Sonipat.)