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Business News/ Opinion / Online-views/  Of odds and evens: The Delhi gambit
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Of odds and evens: The Delhi gambit

A sustainable solution lies in creating a robust public transport network

Photo: Hindustan TimesPremium
Photo: Hindustan Times

Much has been said and written since the Delhi government took the plunge: deciding to take part of the automobile fleet off the roads for two weeks beginning 1 January.

Two things stand out from the commentary. One, the extent of the problem and the implications of the rather out-of-the-box solution proffered. Second, is the commitment of Delhi’s new political establishment to stay the course.

The immediate response from some lazy critics is that the scheme to ration out the roads wouldn’t work. This is a typical response to any initiative in India which is not run of the mill. We should simply ignore this line of argument.

The bigger problem of viewing it through this narrow prism is that we miss the most tangible gain from the proposal. By, so abruptly, popping such a solution, the state government has got everyone going on pollution.

Now the fight against pollution is no longer the preserve of environmentalists alone. This is very good. All of a sudden almost everyone is part of the dialogue; the first step towards addressing a problem is to raise civic consciousness—regardless of whether we win the battle against pollution or not, the citizens are now aware.

And rightly so. Several studies have already established the import of the problem that has spiked in recent years. While tackling emissions is the key, one must keep in mind that Delhi’s peculiar topography—being shaped like a saucer—makes it particularly vulnerable as the pollutants simply tend to hang in the air. And of course the fact that various governments have dragged their feet on building a bypass that would divert heavy vehicle traffic that pass through the city has only worsened the problem.

This aside, there should be no doubts on the extent of Delhi’s pollution problem and its grave implications. A three-year study was undertaken by the Central Pollution Control Board with the National Cancer Institute, Kolkata, to determine health effects of air pollution.

The findings of the epidemiological study published in 2008 are frightening. Among other things, it reported:

n a third of Delhi’s residents suffered respiratory symptoms

n most suffered from recurrent dry cough, wet cough, wheezing, breathlessness and chest discomfort

n the lung function of two out of five residents was reduced.

Suffice to say we breathe toxic air in Delhi. Similarly, studies have established that vehicular pollution is one of the key contributors to pollution levels. So, the state government has done well in going after vehicles.

Especially given the political economy of transport—vehicle owners are few (less than 14% according to a study) yet account for the predominant share of the road space, while a third of Delhi which simply walks has no pedestrian space.

Furthermore, 98% of the erstwhile Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was used by the previous Delhi government headed by the Congress to create infrastructure for cars.

Having said so, given the penchant of the present Delhi government headed by the Aam Aadmi Party to play to the galleries and deflect issues instead of addressing them, they may be missing the woods for the trees.

Why so? Firstly, they have unnecessarily complicated the odds and evens scheme; the success of such an out-of-the-box solution is to keep it simple.

Two-wheelers—whose owners are a voluble constituency—have been left out without providing any evidence that they do not contribute to pollution levels; then they have exempt only cars driven by single women, again without any evidence that women chauffeured cars dominate Delhi traffic.

Secondly, there are easier deterrents, but politically far more stickier to implement; these involve pricing. Other cities, such as Singapore and London, have employed a congestion charge.

But an even better deterrent would have been to levy a parking charge—especially given the anecdotal information that only half of the 8.89 million cars in Delhi are actually operated, resulting in clogged colony or arterial roads—linked to the value of the real estate. This is eminently doable as Karthik Shashidhar, a Mint columnist, demonstrated in a recent post.

Thirdly, the dramatic move may have skewed the debate. Yes, it is important to address vehicular pollution. But it is even more important to see it as part of a larger sustainable solution in which public transport is the key.

This brings us to the commitment of the government to stay the course. The back and forth that is playing out in the run-up seems to suggest that the government is fairly unsure of itself.

To me more worrying is the track record of this government in providing solutions to public transport.

Among its first decisions was to dismantle the Bus Rapid Transit initiative undertaken (so badly) by the previous government, purely because residents of some of the adjoining colonies bitterly opposed it. (Yes, subsequently they announced its commitment to roll it out in other parts of the city, but they are yet projects on paper.)

In the final analysis it is clear that reducing vehicle population is a smart idea. But a ban is not, given that it is turning out to be an implementation nightmare.

More importantly, a sustainable solution lies in creating a robust public transport network. Everything else will be a stop gap solution, in which the costs will outweigh the benefits.

Anil Padmanabhan is deputy managing editor of Mint and writes every week on the intersection of politics and economics. Comments are welcome at capitalcalculus@livemint.com

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Published: 14 Dec 2015, 01:08 AM IST
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