Cut bus fare to fight Delhi pollution: Jung

New Delhi: Delhi lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung on Friday asked the Delhi government to reduce DTC bus fares to discourage people from using personal vehicles, a move aimed at curbing the rising air pollution in the capital.

Keeping the winter pollution in mind, Mr Jung, who held a meeting with deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, transport minister Satyendar Jain and officials, directed the transport department to reduce bus fares across different slabs for the next two months. The move draws inspiration from the Paris example where the authorities recently made the use of public transport free to encourage people to take not use their cars, a senior official said.

In the review meeting, the transport minister assured the L-G that the department would work out the modalities of reducing the bus fares across different slabs.  According to the L-G’s office, Mr Jung was also assured by the PWD that by February end, all U-turns at Delhi borders, meant to turn away non-destined vehicles, will become operational.

Mr Jung said that special attention needs to be paid to reducing pollution at Anand Vihar after the secretary (Environment) apprised him that pollution readings have increased by 20 per cent there.

Paving of ISBT (Anand Vihar) to reduce dust, reining in incidents of fires at Ghazipur landfill and undertaking dust control measures at the Integrated Freight Complex at Anand Vihar were some of the measures suggested during the meeting.

The secretary (environment) flagged the issue of idling of vehicles on city roads. According to the Raj Niwas, 200 traffic bottlenecks have been identified in Delhi and data has been shared with the agencies concerned so that traffic can be eased at these bottlenecks. The bottlenecks can be removed through road engineering, relocation of bus stops and traffic cycle management, the statement issued by the L-G’s office said.

The Secretary (Environment) also flagged the issue of loose soil which can be addressed by greening areas. Mr Jain assured that by February end, greening of PWD roads would be completed.

“The Secretary (PWD) informed the LG that two vacuum cleaners are operational, out of which one is dedicated to Anand Vihar. They will add six more vacuum cleaning machines by the end of December,” the statement said.