Kejri govt to mark odd-even 'success' with stadium event

The Arvind Kejriwal government will organise a function to mark the ‘successful’ completion of the odd-even experiment.

He and his cabinet will thank police, along with other agencies, for successful implementation of the unprecedented car curbs at the event in Chhatrasal Stadium on Sunday.

Starting from January 1, private cars with odd and even numbers are allowed to ply on roads on alternate days.

The trial ends on January 15.
The government-organised event will have representation from Delhi Police, Transport Department, Delhi Transport Corporation, Delhi Metro, Environment Department, Revenue Department and Civil Defence corps.

A day later, the Chief Minister will chair a meeting to assess the outcome and future of the odd-even formula.

Transport Minister Gopal Rai said cabinet ministers, officials from the agencies and independent environmental experts will attend the 3 pm meeting at Delhi Secretariat.

The meeting will also deliberate on other measures to curb air pollution in the city.
“Delhi government has implemented some of the very challenging schemes such as odd-even and car-free day. In future, we will also implement a scheme on cycling,” Rai said, while addressing a news conference.

He said the people of Delhi are following the odd-even car curbs just the way they did on the Day one.

On Wednesday, the Transport Department issued 171 challans and its helpline number received over 450 calls, mostly about taxis and autorickshaws, till 2 pm.

Earlier in the day, Rai thanked Delhiites for foiling the “vile campaign” against the government’s road rationing scheme.

“In the entire world, we are infamous for not following rules. But people of Delhi have shown that we can pull off something as big as the odd-even scheme,” he said.

Delhi government argues that public transport has coped well with the drastic car curbs. “Metro is ferrying 28 lakh passengers every day against its carrying capacity of 32 lakh people. Also there is no shortfall of buses, as most of them are running with empty seats,” Rai said.

“The buses are making twice the number of trips because traffic intersections have become jam-free,” he added.