Shahan Sud
India’s tryst with trying to reduce pollution has been no less than a bittersweet symphony. With seven of the top 10 most-polluted cities finding their home in the land of Gandhi, we can begin to see a rise in the health burden of transportation-related pollution — with New Delhi ranking sixth on the list among other urban centres from across the globe.
Though studies suggest that the PM 2.5 particle levels have reduced by 25 per cent from 2016-18 to 2012-14 in the national capital, a further 65 per cent reduction in the current PM 2.5 concentration is needed so that Delhi can meet its national air targets.
With all these metrics in sight one might feel the re-introduction of the Odd-Even Policy — starting November 4 — for the third time might be an effective policy solution. However, not only did the pollution levels rise by 23 per cent in the second-phase of odd-even experiment but the odd-even policy has also resulted in lacklustre improvements in the pollution levels of Delhi as per the analysis by CPCB, DPCC and India Spend. With the lack of effectiveness and a host of exemptions, the citizens should be able to voice their concerns and ask their Chief Minister that is this mere political posturing or can the odd-even be amended to ensure it meets its true objective?
If we scratch the surface, one can gleam that the Command and Control policy (Odd-Even Policy) formula’s unintended consequences outweigh its intended purpose. The Delhi government initially launched the scheme on December 4, 2015, and the four-wheeler sales between December 5, 2015, and January 10, 2016, totalled 8,298, compared to average sales of 7,679 vehicles in the same period over the previous four years when the auto sector saw both a slump and a revival in demand. This shows that the private vehicular volume increased due to people’s response to circumvent the road rationing policy by purchasing an additional vehicle with number plate of an alternative number.
Learning from international experiences of implementing road-rationing policies, the third phase of odd-even policy will not be deployed in isolation. Though the Delhi’s Chief Minister has announced a host of other measures to curb pollution which include distributing N-95 anti-pollution masks, planting trees and water sprinkling on roads, these measures are ‘soft measures’ as they do not approach the problem by its roots.
This is not the time to get stuck in political rhetoric. Soft measures can only take us to an extent and by focusing on them we might be delaying our initial steps to make our national capital not only ‘breathable’, but also build a model which other cities can look upon.
In order to ensure our sustained effort to curb air-pollution doesn’t fall flat this time over, a mix of the odd-even policy along with reducing public transportation costs and effective implementation of transport policies (such as re-structuring of parking policies and initiating congestion pricing) can help to bring down the pollution levels in Delhi over the next five years.
This should be complemented by slowly transitioning towards the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and building the requisite infrastructure to support the same in a staggered manner. With the Delhi government having a draft EV policy in place this transition can take place strategically. These might sound bold, but these policy recommendations will help in bridging the eco-friendly policy lacuna that eerily exists in the national capital.
Shahan Sud is a Mumbai-based investment banker. Views are personal.
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