The BRT corridor was one such scheme picked up Dilli’s good ol’ granny Sheila Dikshit. God bless her soul. The idea was to have special lanes for buses to enable citizens commute faster. In principle, the scheme has been working smoothly in Bogota, Colombia and few other cities of the world but for Delhi! Not getting into the specifics, it was a disaster for the megapolis. The scheme was so bad for Delhi that it had to be scrapped all together resulting in draining of Rs 100 crore in making BRT corridor plus Rs 25 crore in dismantling it.

In principle, even the Odd-Even scheme is good. It reduces traffic and results in pollution reduction. Depending on the geography of the city and timings of implementing in the scheme, it comes with a few riders.

Three years ago, one fine day, Delhi’s maverick chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, a byproduct of the Anna Anti-corruption Andolan, decided to implement the scheme. Without any supporting infrastructure, the scheme fell flat. Kejriwal faced the criticism and abuses heaped on him with élan. Nevertheless, the chief minister dared not implement the second part of the scheme in April 2017 with full force and staggered implementing the scheme subsequently. But now as elections are round the corner, to display to the electorate that he is a working CM, he threw in the well-timed scheme knowing fully well that post Diwali, Delhi is a gas chamber.

But post 2017, nothing in Delhi has changed substantially.  The traffic has got messier. The pollution scenario is equally grim. The city has not seen any effective change in public transport system barring a metro line or two. Essentially, things are the same. But what has changed is that people are using more car polling using social media platforms and/or are being forced to use the ineffective public transport system. What Kejriwal and his team have unable been to phantom is given the lateral geography of the city and that work places and business centres are so dispersed that it is not easy for many to meet their commuting requirements based on public transport alone. People use personal cars out of compulsions not out choice.

While in cities like Jakarta, Beijing, Paris or Mexico, the scheme works due to various factors, Delhi works on diverse matrix. In Jakarta, for instance, the odd-even scheme is implemented on specific roads/ areas and for limited timings with adequate alternate public transport, proper parking facilities, and people adhering to traffic norms.

Delhi struggles on many factors and the scheme is implemented in Delhi without proper alternatives. Many representations were made that challenged the implementation of the scheme in the national capital. CNG vehicles were not exempted from the scheme while two-wheelers were though they constitute two-third of total Delhi vehicles. The Delhi Government admitted that public transport in the city was not adequate to exempt two wheelers. Reply to a petition in Delhi High court, the state government said, “Public transport is not adequate at the moment to consider a ban on the two-wheelers.” However, female drivers were exempted.

Petitioners in court countered that the state government had spent crores of rupees on advertisements and promoted the scheme in the guise of curbing air pollution. The Supreme Court of India asked the Delhi government about its logic in implement the odd-even scheme without eliciting a satisfactory reply. 

People are upset on having to deal with half-baked scheme resulting in increased commuting timings. Citizens face difficulty in effectively meeting their daily travel requirements. Let us hope that changes in Delhi are implemented after adequate arrangements are made. By M K Tayal

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