Recently Arvind Kejriwal led AAP Government hit the headlines for coming up with a formula to curb the pollution of Delhi. But for VIP, women drivers, two wheelers; public transport vehicles and perhaps some more categories; vehicles having odd and even registration numbers would be able to ply on alternate days on Delhi roads.
This reminds me of headline grabbing stunt of Kejrival in his last stint when AAP came with innovative idea of using dysfunctional DTC buses as night shelter for relatives of patients being treated in AIIMS during winters.
By all means; the current idea is not innovative. I heard of this formula being used by some cities in other parts of world some 20 years back.
Boss Kejrival; there is a saying in Hindi that you cannot quench thirst by licking dew drops.
While this is a noble idea and should be implemented in Delhi; this would not bring any perceivable change to Delhi pollution levels which is choking the Delhiites.
Let’s muse a bit on what other things can be done in Delhi. Perhaps we need to attack the situation on multiple fronts and a number of initiative may bring a cumulative impact which result in a much more livable Delhi
1. Let everyone attempt to move closer to their workplace; so as to reduce daily commute time
This will definitely not be practical for everyone. But maybe; there are many people who may be able to make adjustment. The aim to reduce need to commute on a monthly basis. Lesser is our need to commute; lesser will we exposed to polluted air and lesser will we contribute to pollution by burning our fuel. Companies may allow 1 day work from home every week for non-production units.
2. Use vacuum cleaning vehicles instead of brooms for removing dust from Delhi roads; cement all the open area or apply green patch
Municipality cleaning staff using broom to sweep the dust from onside to the road to other is just a wasteful exercise. The dust only diffuses in the whole air and practically remain there. There is a need to suck them out and dispose appropriately. Along with this; ensure covering all the bare open muddy patches with greenery or cementing them. Further invest in arranging water sprinklers for the roads. This also means arranging lots of non-potable water for sprinkling on the roads.
3. Identify alternative means of transport of goods to avoid trucks entering the city area
I can think of places like Chawdi Bazaar/Old Delhi wholesale markets; Azadpur fruits and vegetable Mandi and other similar places which would need a lot of trucks to supply the merchandise to the markets. How about supplying the goods by train to the nearest railway station and building some aerial cable cars to bridge that last mile connectivity? This needs feasibility study and investment. This can be a great solution to traffic stagnation and pollution.
4. Divert all the inter-state trucks passing through the city by effective bypass roads.
This is self explanatory
5. Install Smog sucking towers and make diamonds out the smog carbon.
These diamonds can be sold to recover the price of setting up the towers.
http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/07/28/smog-sucking-tower-turns-air-pollution-into-diamonds
Alternatively, we can make fuel out of the CO2 in the air.
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3051240/these-enormous-fans-suck-co2-out-of-the-air-and-turn-it-into-fuel
These initiatives must be costly. Why cannot Mr Narendra Modi/Kejriwal invite these innovators under “Make in India” campaign? What is the price of life of all the Delhi citizens? How much of it can our industrialists happily contribute under their CSR schemes? How much of it our citizens would be happy to contribute towards for their own health and that of their dear ones?
6. Replace all the coal fired power stations in Delhi
In a phased manner, slowly replace coal fired stations like NTPC badarpur etc. with solar and wind power stations. Start a movement in Delhi to let all people have solar panels installed on their roof tops and generate as much electricity from cleaner source as possible to meet their daily consumption. If they are able to generate more; let them have the option of sending the unused electricity to the grid and gain credit points from electricity suppliers.
We should have a target of couple of years to bring down the pollution level consistently by focussed effort on multiple fronts and track our progress on a monthly basis.
