A lot of changes can be seen in the coming times in the measures taken to deal with pollution in Delhi-NCR. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has presented several far-reaching measures to the Supreme Court. The most important of these is to stop vehicles being stopped for MCD toll collection on the borders of Delhi. Instead of collecting toll through radio frequency tag and camera based system.
The court had asked for remedies
The Supreme Court had said that it wants a far-reaching solution to the problem of pollution in Delhi-NCR. For this he will hold regular hearings. The court had also asked CAQM to provide information about all the factors responsible for the pollution of Delhi-NCR. The judges had said that it was wrong to hold only the farmers who burn stubble responsible for the pollution that occurs every winter.
Most pollution comes from vehicles
Now CAQM has presented a chart in the court. According to this, smoke coming out from vehicles is the most important reason responsible for pollution. Along with this, other particulates generated from industries and other reasons also contribute significantly to pollution. Burning of stubble and other residues causes about 20 percent pollution in winter. In summer it reduces to 12 percent. In summer, about 27 percent of pollution is due to dust.
CAQM report
CAQM has presented far-reaching measures to the court in several categories. These include things like reducing dust, controlling construction, building better roads and encouraging farmers not to burn stubble. CAQM has suggested these measures regarding transport: –
- Polluting vehicles should be removed from Delhi-NCR in a phased manner. They should either be scrapped or sent outside NCR.
- To strengthen the pollution checking system, monitoring of vehicles running on the road through remote sensing devices.
- Expansion of rapid rail and metro rail network. Reducing road congestion by connecting them.
- Location based tracking, real-time passenger information system for public transport
- To ensure last mile connectivity to encourage every commuter to take public transport.
- Review and improvement of Electric Vehicle (EV) policy. To provide more incentives to vehicle owners to scrap old vehicles.
- Expansion of EV charging facility. Stations providing battery replacement facilities are also included in this.
- Permission to retrofit vehicles into EVs.
- Expansion of urban public bus service through e-bus and CNG buses.
- Transferring long distance trucks and other commercial vehicles to gas. For this, develop CNG/LNG fuel network.
- To ensure toll collection without stopping the vehicles on all the borders of Delhi. For this, develop a system of cameras and automatic RFID.
- To create an integrated traffic management system for Delhi and its adjoining cities – Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Gurugram, Faridabad and Sonipat.
- Making parking management system in Delhi and NCR.
- Levy of additional environment cess on diesel cars/SUVs having capacity of 2000 cc and above.
- Ensuring strict compliance with transport rules through automatic number plate recognition, radio frequency identification, remote sensing technology and AI based monitoring.
Hearing after 1 month
Taking these measures on record, a bench of 3 judges headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said that all the parties should first discuss about them. After this, inform the court as to how much and for how long these can be implemented. The Supreme Court has said that the next hearing will be held after four weeks.
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