Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said implementation would be a challenge.
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The government also announced a slew of other measures that could help curb air pollution, including stopping roadside parking to battle congestion, improving the public transportation system and bringing cleaner fuel to the city.
By contrast, no-car days trialled in regions of Delhi last month were voluntary, and largely ignored.
However, from the vehicle users’ point of view, this would mean a very inconvenient paradigm shift in their commuting routine.
But, public transport and emergency vehicles were exempted from this rule even there is no clarity on what would happen on these special cases.
Jain made it clear that the scheme – which when implemented would drastically reduce the number of vehicles on Delhi’s choking roads – can succeed only with people’s support.
Delhi has some 90 lakh registered vehicles, and about 1,500 are added on the roads every day.
India’s top judges live in spacious, state-owned bungalows surrounded by gardens in a small upmarket leafy area of central New Delhi. He said PWD will start an urban forestry project in city to cover kaccha patches on roadways in effort to curb dust pollution. “Judges have no problem with the odd-even formula of the Delhi government”, Chief Justice T S Thakur said on Sunday.
Planned to be rolled out from January 1, 2016, the proposal said that cars with odd number plate and even number plate would ply on roads on alternate days.
Officials say even-numbered cars will be allowed to run on even dates and odd-numbered ones on odd dates.
New Delhi was the world’s most polluted city measured by PM2.5 – tiny, toxic particles that lead to respiratory diseases – with an annual average of 153 micrograms per cubic metre, according to a 2014 World Health Organization database. “We expect the public to cooperate”.
“The city has little choice when there is at least one death per hour due to air pollution related diseases and the lung of every third child is impaired”, Roychowdhury said in a statement.
They came in response to a warning from the city’s high court on Thursday that conditions in the Delhi were “like living in a gas chamber”, with justices demanding a “specific and complete” action plan.
Delhi’s last significant push for cleaner air began in the late 1990s, when the government shuttered small polluting factories and switched all buses and auto-rickshaws from diesel to compressed natural gas.
“Kejriwal ji has taken a U-turn on whatever he had said”.
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Kejriwal also said the measure would be implemented on a trial basis, the period of which can range from a fortnight to 20 days.
