From January 1, Leave your Car Home every alternate day as even and odd numbered vehicles only to be allowed on alternate days in Delhi....!!!

NEW DELHI:  Under fire over rising pollution in Delhi and the lack of a concrete plan to tackle it, the Arvind Kejriwal government has announced that private vehicles with odd and even registration numbers will be allowed on the roads of the national capital only on alternate days starting next month.

This means that from January 1, 2016, if vehicles with number plates ending with an odd number can be driven one day, only those ending with an even number can be brought out the next day. This will not apply to public vehicles.

A joint meeting of all stakeholders including traffic police, transport department and Municipal Corporation of Delhi will be called to prepare a blueprint for swift implementation of the executive order.

The decision, taken at a meeting presided over by Kejriwal, will also cover vehicles entering Delhi from other states. The Delhi government hopes to reduce emission by half in the national capital by the controversial move.

The Delhi government has also decided to shut down south Delhi's Badarpur power plant, one of the coal-based plants of the NTPC. The government said it will also launch a web application, which allows people to report about polluting vehicles in the capital.

The High Court and the National Green Tribunal or NGT have repeatedly sought workable action plans to combat the menace of pollution in Delhi where the Air Quality Index, a measure of pollutants in the air, has hit dangerous levels in recent days.

 

The court yesterday ordered a "time-bound action plan" by December 21. Plans submitted by the union environment ministry and the Delhi government were "not comprehensive", the judges said, because they did not specify responsibilities and a timeline.

The NGT has called for a "stay-at-home" alert for children and older people.

The World Health Organisation said last year that New Delhi is the most polluted city on Earth; the five most polluted areas in the country on Friday morning were all in Delhi.

An expanding metro system has failed to slow the spread of private vehicles and 1,400 extra cars hit the streets every day in the capital.

Pollution typically worsens in the winter months as the cooling of temperatures combines with pollution to cover the city, home to 16 million people, in smog.