To reduce air pollution in the capital, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has suggested an alternative scheme to odd-even — ‘last-digit automobile rationing’ scheme — to the Delhi government. As per the proposal, vehicle number plates ending with 1 would not be allowed to drive on roads on dates ending with 1— 1st, 11th, 21st and 31st of a month. “We suggest that the last-digit rationing be done for every digit from 0 to 9. It should cover all automobiles — passenger cars, two-wheelers, taxis, commercial vehicles. No exemption should be granted except for CNG vehicles, buses, ambulances, fire brigades and police vehicles,” said the CII.

The CII analysis is based on a study done by United States Environmental Protection Agency, which found that the universal average carbon dioxide emission from a petrol or diesel car is 257 grams for every km, and approximately 75 grams for two-wheelers and three-wheelers. According to the study, if the odd-even scheme is implemented for 15 days every quarter — a total of 60 days — then the total reduction in CO2 emission would be 4,823 tons or 0.37 per cent of the total emission in a year. “But if the last-digit rationing scheme is implemented throughout the year, then the total reduction in emission would be 10,549 tons or 0.82 per cent of the total emission,” it said. A senior official from the environment department said, “We are yet to see the suggestion made by CII. But the decision to implement the odd-even scheme was based on a lot of consultation with environment and industry experts.”