Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday admitted for the first time that the odd-even scheme cannot be a long-term “remedy” to air pollution. Kejriwal was speaking at a thanksgiving ceremony to celebrate the success of the second phase of the scheme.
He said his government was determined to ramp up public transport in the city within a year to limit the number of vehicles on the roads.
Calling the second phase of the odd-even scheme “very successful”, Kejriwal said the government will soon come out with a separate policy for cab and bus aggregators which will enable more taxis and buses on the roads.
We have to strengthen the public transport system in the coming days and we are working on it. Odd-even cannot be a long-term remedy. We have announced a bus aggregator policy. We hope the buses from the private sector will ply on the roads. We are also coming up with a taxi aggregator policy which will enable more taxis on roads.Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM
In the coming one year, public transport will be strengthened in Delhi and if we do odd-even after that then people will also face less trouble, he said.
Transport Minister Gopal Rai said the success of the second phase of the scheme was 99.60 percent which is five per cent more than the first phase of the road rationing measure in January.
He said the government will take a decision on future implementation of the odd-even scheme based on analysis of various surveys on air pollution by different agencies as well as examining the effectiveness of Phase 1 and 2.
The Chief Minister said the Delhi Government was augmenting Delhi Transport Corporation’s bus fleet besides taking a series of measures to improve public transport.
The second phase of the scheme was implemented from 15 to 30 April.
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