"I appeal to all citizens of Delhi to use public transport at least once a month. I want it to become a people's movement," said Rai at Samvaad, a meeting of stakeholders like civic agencies, transport authorities, the environment department and experts convened by the Delhi government. He also invited people to write to him at gopalrai.delhi@gov.in with ideas on how to tackle the congestion and pollution in the capital.

A slew of measures were decided at the meeting, including more bicycle rentals at metro stations, getting all autorickshaws and taxis on the Pooch-O app by October 22 and the setting up of more than 2,000 pollution checking centres in the city over the next few months. Rai also ordered the Delhi Transport Corporation to ensure fewer breakdowns of its buses while advising the Delhi Metro to erect designated lanes for e-rickshaws and autorickshaws at metro stations. "Halt and go" stands on special lanes for autorickshaws on major roads have also been mooted.

Moving towards a unified traffic authority, Rai has set up a coordination committee that will comprise representatives from DTC, DIMTS, DMRC, transport and environment departments, civic agencies and the Delhi Traffic Police. The panel will meet next on October 8, said Rai, adding that it would now monitor the success of the campaign.

Rai told the meeting that the decongestion campaign would begin with the identification of the five most gridlocked spots in the city. The agencies concerned will be asked to work on a decongestion plan for these areas. He asked the traffic police to work with DIMTS on determining the causes of the increasing number of traffic jams in the capital. "Cars are a status symbol in Delhi, but the decongestion campaign has to change this mindset. We are playing with our children's lives," he said. The campaign would involve not only the mainstream media, but also theatre, nukkad natak, schools and NCC and NSS cadets.

Though the day earmarked for the first car-free day, October 22, happens to be Dussehra, Rai dismissed worries about VIP movement and festivities. The Delhi government hopes that the traffic campaign, combined with the car-free day, will go a long way in tackling crowded roads and the air pollution in the city.

The minister also expressed concerns about the vehicular traffic affecting pollutions levels, pointing out that 447 of the 558 spots the government checked for air quality had shown degradation beyond the norms. "Traffic jams are not only wasting our time, but also affecting our health," he said.

Amit Bhatt of Embarq, an NGO, cited figures collected on Raahgiri days to corroborate the minister's fears. "Using a portable air pollution monitoring device, we compared the fine particulate matter (respirable particles less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter) levels on a day when vehicles were plying and on another day when they weren't. We found the levels halved on the day vehicles did not run."

Car manufacturers weren't happy, however, with the unwanted attention. Questioning the role played by cars in air pollution, Pavan Sachdeva of Mahindra & Mahindra said, "Going by Embarq's data, only 11% of people use cars in Delhi. We are already in an ideal situation that clearly shows that cars are not the reason for pollution." He said that revisiting the actual problem of poor traffic management, bad roads, bio-mass burning and other factors was the need of the hour.