Without ensuring public participation and minimizing exemptions for commercial vehicles and certain group of trabellers, the odd-even scheme – to be rolled out from November 4 in Delhi – will do little to improve the air quality of the National Capital Region, environmentalists say.
A study by IIT-Delhi researchers has found that the rationing of vehicles on Delhi’s roads reduced air pollution by only 2-3 per cent when the scheme was introduced for the first time in January 2016.
“We stand by our study,” said Dinesh Mohan, professor emeritus at IIT-Delhi, who led the study. “Since there was no improvement in air quality and the impact on congestion was so little, there is no reason to reintroduce the scheme except garnering international publicity.”
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Santosh Harish, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, was part of a team of researchers at The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago and Evidence for Policy Design, that analysed the impact of the Odd-Even scheme implemented in 2016.