JOIN USThe Delhi Dialogue Commission on Monday held a meeting with the Centre for Science and Environment and transport officials to come up with a roadmap for checking vehicular emission.
Advocacy organisation CSE asked the Delhi government to write to the Centre to advance the roadmap for emissions standards.
The Delhi Dialogue Commission said it has asked CSE to find out whether it is too expensive to move to Euro VI standard. As per CSE, the higher emission norm will not cost more than Rs 15,000.
There has been a series of meetings among the Union Environment Ministry and the Delhi Transport Department on whether the city can jump direct to Euro VI.
The public advocacy group recommended stricter norms for issuance of pollution under control (PUC) certificates. They suggested that the government should do away with the outdated technology for checking vehicular emission.
PUC norms should match the euro norms, the CSE suggested. It claimed that testing is not appropriate for new generation technology. “For diesel vehicles, only density test is done which is not sufficient. Only six per cent vehicles fail due to this high limit,” CSE said.
It also asked the Delhi government to come up with a smoky vehicle penalty programme and make annual fitness check of cars mandatory.
CSE, however, was not in favour of banning vehicles older than 15 years. “Age of the car is not the issue but maintenance of the car is the main issue. Therefore, focus should be on annual fitness and removal of the 15-year ban needs to be considered,” CSE said.
It asked the government to add more buses to the Delhi Transport Corporation fleet. In 1998, the Supreme Court had directed that the city should expand its bus service to 11,000 buses. But there are only 5,000-6,000 buses in the city.
“It was suggested that DTC should buy 900 mm (floor height) bus with standard specification prescribed under JNNURM, Ministry of Urban Development,” the Delhi government in a press statement said.
CSE said that 40 per cent commuters in the city rely on DTC buses, whereas only 14 per cent use cars and 20 per cent use two-wheelers. Only 10 per cent Delhiites use the Metro.