NEW DELHI, APRIL 18:

Three days after the latest round of the odd-even scheme in the National Capital have not had an effect on pollution levels.

But on Monday — the first working day since the second phase of the scheme took off during an extended weekend — many commuters were left with hefty cab bills.

If data presented by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) are anything to go by, the pollution figures have not come down despite the traffic rationing scheme taking half the cars off the roads.

Two days before the second phase of the car rationing scheme started, PM 2.5 (particulate matter 2.5n micrometers) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in most parts of the city remained within the prescribed limits.

However, data for Saturday and Sunday showed a remarkable increase in pollution.

“In Delhi and NCR, PM2.5 concentrations violated the prescribed standards at many places, while NO2 levels are within the limits. PM10 concentrations are violating the standards at most of the locations in NCR,” the report from TERI said on Monday for the pollution levels on Saturday.

Sunday, however, is a “holiday” from the Delhi government scheme for car drivers since restriction is lifted on the day.

Above the standard limit

“The 24-hourly pollutant concentrations in Delhi are 1-2.8 times above the standard of PM2.5 and about 1-1.3 times above the standard of NO2,” TERI’s analysis of the Saturday pollution levels said.

Sumit Sharma, Fellow, TERI, explained that the reasons for this inexplicable increase in pollution levels despite the decrease in the number of cars on the road lay in meteorological factors. “In the last couple of days the wind speed went down tremendously. When this happens, the ambient air pollution tends to rise,” Sharma said.

Sharma, who has been monitoring pollution data in the city during both the first and second phase of odd-even scheme said that such measures can only have a small impact on air pollution in the city.

“Share of private cars in the overall air pollution inventory is very small. It may be around five percent,” he said.

While pollution remained a concern, also hurting the pockets of the commuters was the sudden surge in private cabs fare given high demand.

This had led to the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal threatening action against these taxi companies. Kejriwal government also notified new maximum prices for taxis – economy ₹12.5 per km; non-ac/ac black and yellow cabs ₹14/km and ₹16/km respectively; radio taxis ₹23/km.

Brisk business

For cab aggregators such as Ola and Uber, the action from the Delhi Government has opened up brisk business. These companies, which under the business model charge surge pricing during peak hours, or when demand is high in an area, left customers fuming as they were left with massive hikes in fare going up as much as four to five times the regular prices.

Both Ola and Uber subsequently announced that they were “temporarily” suspending the surge/peak pricing in support of the government’s move.

If this was not enough, disgruntled commuters also complained about low frequency of buses and crowded metros.

Reportedly, the Delhi Traffic police issued challans to over 2,300 violators on the first two days of the phase two against less than 480 during the same duration of phase 1.