All private cars to be BANNED from Delhi roads, says Govt official: We explain!

All private vehicles currently plying on the roads of the National Capital could be stopped from plying on New Delhi’s roads if air pollution levels get worse. Air pollution levels in New Delhi have been started reaching severe levels toxic smog has started to envelop the city as winter starts to set in.

The Chairman of the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) Bhure Lal stating this about the worsening air pollution in Delhi, “Let us hope the air pollution situation in Delhi doesn’t deteriorate but if it turns out to be an emergency, we will have to stop the use of private transport. There is a committee which will advise me on this.”

Delhi usually faces an intense increase in air pollution levels and this year has been no different as farmers start to burn off the residue of their old crops ahead of a new growing season that starts up by the early November. The same has been the case this year with the air quality index, which measures the concentration of poisonous particulate matter, hitting 469 in parts of Delhi yesterday down from the previous level of 299.4 recorded one week ago. With Diwali also round the corner, Delhi’s air quality levels are set to worsen even more.

The EPCA has also given other suggestions to help curb pollution levels including halting construction, the use of diesel-run power generators, brick kilns and the burning of garbage between the first and tenth of November.

This isn’t the first suggestion regarding stopping of private vehicles running on Delhi’s roads that we’ve seen from India’s lawmakers. The Supreme Court, which appointed the EPCA, yesterday, ordered that all 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol be taken off the streets of the nation’s capital in a bid to clean up the air above New Delhi.

A few years ago, in another scheme to alleviate the bad pollution levels, the Delhi government implemented the odd-even scheme which only allowed certain vehicles depending on the last digit of your registration number. The scheme led to some rather confusing days before it was stopped but even that seems to be a lot better than just shutting off