School-goers added more cars to the city roads, leading to congestion in up to 6 km area around schools, a Delhi government-appointed six-member panel said in its report on the second phase of odd-even scheme.
According to the report, a ‘very high’ percentage of students used cars and other private vehicles to reach school during the second phase between April 15 and April 30.
The panel headed by Special Commissioner Transport K K Dahiya was setup on April 23 to study the “impact of opening of schools and hot weather” on the odd-even scheme, banning private vehicles on alternate days.
The committee surveyed six private schools namely DPS RK Puram, DPS East of Kailash, DPS Vasant Vihar, N K Bagrodia School Rohini, K R Mangalam World School GK – II & Modern School Barakhamba Road.
There was an additional volume of 3,88,886 private cars, 134,598 two wheelers and 8,000 buses, which was not there during the first phase, the report said.
The government panel also blamed traffic snarls during odd-even 2.0 on the “marriage season” and “high temperatures”. However, it said the road-rationing drive was “largely successful since car owners in Delhi voluntarily complied” with the odd-even rules.
As per the data obtained from DND flyway, only 12 per cent fewer vehicles entered Delhi from Uttar Pradesh during the odd-even scheme last month.
“The data collected from in-coming vehicles from Gurgaon and Noida indicated that the residents of satellite towns did not shift to car pooling or public transport but they made alternative arrangements resulting in marginal decrease in number of vehicles coming from these towns,” the committee said.
Traffic jams at Bhairon Marg and Rao Tula Ram Marg was attributed to a “major construction activity”. Whereas, dismantling of bus rapid transit (BRT) “disrupted traffic” in a radius of almost 8 to 10 km.
According to the committee, 30,000 more CNG vehicles took the roads, as 30,000 CNG stickers were distributed during the second phase of odd-even scheme. CNG vehicles were exempted from the odd-even rules.
