Delhi embraces odd-even formula to breathe fresh air

At long last, after plenty of criticism, Delhi is embracing the odd-even formula of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal - the CM has, himself, set the ball rolling by car-pooling with Transport Minister Gopal Rai and Home Minister Satyendra Jain to reach the Secretariat. Delhi is now witnessing full implementation of even-odd rule. Other ministers of Delhi also dumped their cars and used alternate modes to reach office. Since it was the day for even numbers, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia cycled to office - his car is odd numbered.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 4 January 2016.

The Delhi Traffic Police have issued about 200 challans in the morning office hours and, DTC buses and Delhi Metro witnessed usual flow of passengers during peak office hours. It is obvious that people preferred car-pooling and auto-rickshaws to reach their destinations.
It is now four days that this system has been introduced and, the odd-even scheme for vehicular movement faced its real test when the city witnessed maximum traffic during office hours. In this connection it needs to be noted that most of Delhi's traffic has been off-road since January 1 due to weekend and New Year holidays and, the odd-even vehicular restriction policy of the Delhi government had come into effect on January 1. Thousands of volunteers took to the streets to assist traffic police in enforcing the pilot plan that will stay in force till January 15.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Delhi to observe a car-free day on 22 October from 7am to 12 noon

Delhi will observe a car-free day on 22 October (Dussera) as an initiative of the government to encourage people to use public transport in the national capital – day, for this purpose, would be clocked as from 7am to 12noon. The stretch covered would be from the Red Fort and India Gate.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 2 October 2015.

As Transport Minister Gopal Rai has indicated, the government proposes a cycle rally on that day in the morning on the car-free stretch.
He has also added that the government would ensure that no car is allowed to ply between the stretch falling between the Red Fort and India Gate on October 22. However, a fleet of 20 DTC buses would be deployed as shuttle service between Red Fort and India Gate to facilitate people.
The government will also appeal to e-rickshaws to run their vehicles on this stretch so that people don't have to face problem.
This initiative is fine but Delhi government should consider earmarking a specific day of the week to the cause and not just a few hours. That way, people would get used to the concept and begin to patronize alternate means of travel like bicycles. Automatically, the environment would remain free of pollution.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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