‘No great change in cars plying from NCR to city’

Contrary to the expectations that vehicles from Noida entering Delhi would go down by 45 to 50 per cent during second phase of odd-even scheme, there was a mere reduction of just about 12 per cent of the motor vehicles in the national capital. Similar was the case with the vehicles entering from Gurgaon to the national capital during the car-rationing scheme effective from April 15 to April 30. These are the findings of six-member committee, headed by special transport secretary K.K. Dahiya, set up by the Aam Aadmi Party government to find out the reasons which were responsible for plying of more vehicles during Phase-II of the scheme in comparison to Phase-I initiative which was implemented from January 1 to January 15.

A 22-page report submitted recently by the committee to the government said the number of vehicles which entered Delhi from Noida from DND flyway and Mayur Vihar was only 11 and 13 per cent less respectively during the second odd-even. The report said that 7,508 and 7,484 vehicles entered Delhi from Noida on April 25 and April 26 respectively. But the number of vehicles entering Delhi from DND shot up to 7,927 and 8,285 on May 4 and May 5 respectively. As far as the vehicles entering Delhi from Mayur Vihar Lane was concerned, it was 3,578 and 3,336 on April 25 and April 26 respectively. But the number of vehicles entering the city from the MYL slightly went up to 3,821 and 3,776 on May 4 and May 5 respectively.

One of the main reasons for more vehicles plying during Odd-Even-II was attributed by the committee to the functioning of the schools, which had otherwise remained closed during the Phase-I. The committee came to this conclusion on the basis of a sample of 13,497 students studying in six unaided private schools. There are a total of 1,470,870 students studying in unaided private schools in the city. The report said 23.68 per cent of the students had used their cars, 5.52 per cent had pooled their vehicles, 2.69 per cent had travelled by two-wheelers 18.83 per cent had used other modes of transport. With 49 per cent of the students using school transport, the committee concluded that about 82 per cent had availed motorized modes to reach their schools.

A copy of the report, accessed by this newspaper, gives a detailed account on the mode of transport being used by the students across the national capital. According to the report, there are about 3,000 buses registered across all schools in Delhi and about 5,000 buses are operating on contract carriage permit basis by them to ferry students. In addition to private schools, there are also 3.17 million students enrolled in government/ public schools. It is assumed that the socio-economic conditions of the students of government schools are moderate and as such they do not use cars.