New Delhi: Regularisation of the ‘odd-even’ scheme will “reduce” its impact and it should only be used as an emergency measure, a green body today said, underlining the need for implementing alternative measures like “congestion pricing” to lessen the number of vehicles on roads to tackle air pollution.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) which released an impact assessment study on the two-phases of odd-even scheme observed that as private cars have limited contribution in the PM2.5 levels, the scheme yielded only “marginal” reductions (4-7 per cent) during both the phases.
TERI observed that the impact of the scheme with respect to traffic counts, average speeds and air quality declined during the second phase in comparison to the first phase and the decline could be probably due to people opting for “second cars with alternative number plates, installations of CNG kits or enhanced use of taxis”.
“The results of the two phases of odd-even scheme in Delhi suggest that it is useful only when high pollution episodes are expected. We do not see merit in regularising the scheme.
“A more sustainable approach for dealing with air pollution not only in Delhi but also in other metropolises would be congestion pricing, which is a far more effective option,” Director General of TERI Ajay Mathur said.
Congestion pricing is based on a ‘pay-as-you-use’ principle with an aim to reduce the number of vehicles and in turn encourage modal shift by charging vehicles on entry in restricted zones and times. This can be complemented by providing exemptions to higher-occupancy vehicles.
TERI said that such a model has proved to be successful in cities such as Singapore, London, Sweden, Rome, Durham, Seoul, San Diego etc.
The congestion pricing scheme can be first tried out in different ways including, all across congestion pricing, identification of low-emission zones and road-wise congestion pricing, TERI said.
TERI also urged the government to ensure the earliest possible introduction of BS-VI vehicle and fuel quality norms, real-time monitoring and reporting of industrial emissions in NCR and the need for business models to convert agricultural wastes into energy using biomass gasification technologies.
