Cleaning up Delhi

If Delhi is to avoid its annual air pollution crisis again this coming year, steps have to be taken

In a positive move, the Delhi Government will have to augment its existing bus fleet by the end of the year after the Central Government signed off on the Supreme Court approved plan to improve the capital’s air quality. The city, which suffers a chronic shortage of buses and despite the massive expansion of the Delhi Metro as Phase-3 becomes operational, it has extremely poor last-mile connectivity. This has led to an unprecedented increase in private vehicles in India. Sustained delays are being dealt with in constructing the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal bypass around the capital, which has made Delhi’s arterial roads a thoroughfare for container trucks, which just add to the pollution. At the same time the Centre is unveiling a whole new Rs 1,500 crore plan to tackle rampant stubble burning in November which sets off the pollution alarms in Delhi and northern India.

A comprehensive public transportation policy is needed in the capital to get people off private vehicles. In some major cities, like London, they have dealt with this through congestion charges to enter the central hub; in Beijing through vehicle rationing. However, there needs to be a coordinated plan not just for Delhi but for the entire National Capital Region. As costs have spiralled in the capital, many of the city’s workers now commute as much as 50-60 kilometers one way and while there has been talk of regional light railway networks to Panipat and Neemrana, ground has not been broken. At the same time, while buses need to be added urgently, the State and Central Governments have to explore the possibility of introducing electric buses to Delhi’s fleet. The huge orders for buses for Delhi can potentially give a fillip to India’s electric vehicle manufacturing as other cities across the gangetic plains will also need such vehicles to tackle local pollution.

However, one major cause of pollution in the capital have been the winds from the northwest that bring in massive amounts of particulate matter from arid central asia. Rampant mining of the Aravalis have decimated the natural barrier to the dust laden winds. These winds can’t be tackled by a Supreme Court Committee, but will need some innovative technological solutions. The Government of India should put out an ‘X Prize’ for global innovators to evolve a solution to the problem. The dust and the pollution in the capital and across the country is becoming a quality of life problem and will have to dealt with and it is heartening to see that finally the government is taking it seriously.