"As soon as fire engines left the garage, for instance, from (the centrally situated) Connaught Place, they used to get caught in a traffic jam. Negotiating through the dense traffic was a nightmare and it is also something we had become used to," says Sharma. According to the fire services department head, his men often have to shout out from the fire engines to force motorists to make way.

Delhi has the highest number of vehicles in the country and, over the last many years, the traffic jams in the city have become a source of constant tension in the city.

Fire department personnel also said that the force has had to innovate and fashion fire engines that are smaller in size in order to squeeze their way through jams.

"We also constantly have had to ask teams from different locations to rush to the same spot as some of the teams would invariably get caught in a jam," said a fire force personnel who did not wish to be identified.

Asked whether the traffic has spoilt their chances of executing a proper rescue operation, the fire chief pauses for a while making it clear that it is not an easy question for him. "Yes, it happens sometimes," says Sharma.

But the fire force chief is in a better mood these days after the Delhi government implemented the odd-even scheme of staggering car traffic. "For the last one week or so the experience of travelling on Delhi roads appears different from what it used to be. The roads appear wide and the drive smoother. Now there is continuous driving as opposed to the stop-and-go situation earlier.

This has made the work of the fire services also easier," said Sharma.

Scheme scrutiny

The odd-even scheme is now one of the most widely debated topics on the street as well as on the internet. It was announced by the Delhi government as a measure to tackle the growing threat of air pollution.

The latest available data provided by the Delhi government suggests that although there is some drop in the levels of Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5, the drive has not brought the pollution levels anywhere near what is considered healthy as per international safety standards.

Transport minister Gopal Rai said that the PM 2.5 levels recorded at 18 locations in the city a week after the scheme came into effect showed a drop of about 30% at these points. While the levels recorded this week showed a range that was below 300 ug/m3, the figure for the month of December was in the range of 400-465 ug/m3, the minister said. The permissible level for PM 2.5 is 60.

At a prominent south Delhi mall, Amit Kumar takes his hand-held pollutant measuring device and walks out onto the open courtyard; the digital meter shows figures for PM 2.5 that are in the range of about 350. Kumar is an employee at Nirvana Being — a store that sells designer pollution masks and air quality measuring instruments.

Kumar says the store is frequented mostly by the expat community in Delhi with people from South Korea buying the masks more frequently than other expats.

Pointing to the numbers flashing on the instrument, Kumar says: "See there is no significant difference in the air quality. If anything, the traffic jams have reduced on account of the odd-even scheme," he says.

This is why it appears as of now that although the scheme was started to control air pollution, much of the support for it has come because of the fact that it has helped decongest the city roads.

Over the week, social media was abuzz with people posting pictures of the open roads that helped them reach destinations in virtually half the time it used to take before the odd-even programme began. The criticism on the other side emanated from those who said they had a harrowing time using crowded public transport systems.

Patience and perseverance

Experts on air pollution pointed out that the problem was not something that could be dealt with in a week or a fortnight. Vivek Chattopadhyay, a senior researcher at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), says that the odd-even scheme has indeed worked to a certain extent as there is a drop in peak or smog episodes of air pollution. However, he agrees that the average air quality continues to be poor. This has more to do with winter than the efficacy of the staggered traffic project.

During winters, the weather pattern makes it difficult for pollutants to disperse and therefore the accumulated particulate matter continues to hover in the atmosphere, he says.

According to Chattopadhyay, Delhi's citizens need to show more patience with the oddeven effort as the current weather has not been conducive for the experiment. "When the government organised a car-free day during Dussehra there was a drop of 40% to 45% in PM 2.5 levels. There was no accumulation at that point," he said.

Chattopadhyay explains that many other measures are needed for better results. These include reducing the number of diesel trucks on the road along with private vehicle usage, hiking parking charges (which currently are the lowest amongst the world's megacities) and ramping up and improving public transport to ensure better first-and last mile connectivity and coverage not just in Delhi but in the entire National Capital Region.

"Globally the odd-even idea is best kept for peak or smog episodes as it gives immediate relief from emissions, but it can also lead to multiple ownership of vehicles if introduced too frequently or if persisted with without working on other measures that can reduce the private vehicle usage and enhance public transport. But it is unavoidable during high smog conditions, as in Delhi right now, along with other measures that are being implemented in the city like diversion of trucks, pollution tax on diesel goods carriers," added the CSE expert.

Chattopadhyay also pointed out that the scheme has inspired a new kind of transportation culture in the Capital. "Odd and even has proved that people in Delhi are opting for public transport, carpools, taking autos and taxis, which can reduce the total emissions."

Unintended beneficiaries

John Varghese, an ambulance driver with St Stephen's Hospital in old Delhi, is one of the most relieved people in the city after the oddeven scheme came into play. Over the years, Varghese says, his ambulance would invariably get stuck in traffic jams, with a patient in need of critical care in tow.

"Almost as a matter of routine, the family members accompanying the patient would get hysterical. They would plead with me to go faster. I would shout at some of the drivers nearby to give way — they would point out the sheer impregnability of the traffic ahead of them. Then, I would try explaining the same to the family but they would never understand.

Then they would abuse me. This is what my life was about for all these years," says Varghese.

It was only a fortnight ago that Varghese had to take a critically injured two-year-old through the congested roads of old Delhi. The child had fallen from a multi-storeyed building and needed to be rushed to the hospital. After a delay of close to half-an-hour, he managed to get the infant to the hospital.

Then they would abuse me. This is what my life was about for all these years," says Varghese.

Varghese is perhaps one of the unintended beneficiaries of the scheme. "Now there are times when you actually drive an ambulance the way it is meant to be," he says. Pollution levels are still well in the hazardous range but if the odd-even scheme has yielded benefits accruing from decongested roads, it may well be time to say: well begun is half done.