The National Green Tribunal directed Delhi government on Thursday to reduce traffic congestion on the city roads and introduce destination buses to improve air quality in the Capital.
The green court said the introduction of point-to-point buses would facilitate individuals to opt for the service rather than drive a car alone on highly congested roads.
“The traffic on the roads of Delhi needs to be reduced by taking various measures that have already been directed to be taken by various authorities including introduction of destination buses which could certainly help, particularly the middle class and single driver from opting for destination buses rather than driving a car individually on highly congested roads of Delhi,” a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said.
It also asked the AAP government to provide incentives to those using public transport in order to encourage them.
The tribunal had earlier directed the Delhi government to convene a meeting of authorities concerned and come up with solutions to tackle the worsening air quality in the city, after being told that the odd-even road rationing scheme has not helped curb pollution.
Earlier, the apex pollution monitoring body, Central Pollution Control Board, had told the NGT that decline in vehicular emission in the second week of odd-even phase two was not a dominant enough factor to impact the pollution levels.
The CPCB had monitored several pollutants between April 1-14 before the odd-even period and April 15-30 during it, to arrive at the conclusion.
The order came while hearing a petition filed by scientist Mahendra Pandey who has sought independent monitoring of air quality index and also claiming that vehicular emission was not a major contributing factor to pollution.
