Road rationing returns: Odd-even 2.0 from 15 to 30 April in Delhi

Delhi’s odd-even scheme, which became the subject of much debate and controversy at the start of the year, will make a 15-day comeback in April. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that the second phase of the scheme will be implemented from 15 to 30 April. The dates have been decided keeping in mind school examinations, which will be held in the first half of April. Citing responses from various mohalla committees, Kejriwal claimed that 81 percent of the people surveyed favoured the resumption of the odd-even scheme. Under the scheme, cars with a registration number ending with an odd digit will be allowed on dates that are an odd number , and those who end on even digts will be allowed on dates that are an even number. The Delhi chief minister, however, said that it was not possible to implement the scheme on a permanent basis till public transport is improved. [caption id=“attachment_2621984” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Tarique Anwar/Firstpost[/caption] Women will continue to be exempted from the scheme, said Kejriwal. Two-wheelers will continue to remain out of the ambit of the scheme, because of the constraints of public transport, he said. “The city has more than 30 lakh two-wheelers, and so, if the restrictions are put in place, about 15 lakh more people will have to use public transport,” the chief minister said. Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the lack of traffic jams during the 1-15 January period was something that everyone in the city had appreciated. The road rationing experiment, aimed at curbing air pollution in the metropolis, was implemented from 1-15 January in its first phase with Sundays being exempted from it. Subsequently, the government invited public opinion through emails, missed calls, online forms and also reached out to around nine lakh people through interactive voice response system. “Around 28,300 suggestions have been received through online forms while another 9,000 and 1,82,808 have come through emails and missed calls respectively. The government, on its part, has made more than 9 lakh calls to gather public opinion,” a senior government official said. With inputs from agencies