Tag: Delhi air pollution

Delhi kicks off e-bus trial to curb pollution

Low-floor electric bus

Low-floor electric bus

In its effort to promote pollution-free public transport, the Delhi government conducted a trial run of its low-floor electric bus and said it is in the process of procuring e-buses to ply on roads by 2019.

Interiors & Safety features

The 33-seat air-conditioned low-floor buses come with added safety features such as four CCTV cameras and a panic button for Delhi commuters.

Trial route

The trial run was flagged off by Transport Minister, Kailash Gahlot and Commissioner of Transport, Varsha Joshi in the presence of senior officials of the department. During the three-month trial, the e-bus will make trips between Ambedkar Nagar and Inderpuri to test its operational feasibility on different road conditions.

Distance

The manufacturers claim that the bus may run for over 150-200 km after a full charge within 30 minutes.

Project Consultant & Manufacturer

Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) has been appointed as the project consultant and is responsible for the procurement of e-buses. They are manufactured by PMI Electro Mobility Solutions in collaboration with a Chinese company Foton.

Fully operational by July 2019

According to Transport Minister’s office, the construction is expected to be completed by June 2019 and the first batch of electric buses are expected to be deployed and fully operational by July 2019.

Source :- BS

Delhi’s air quality improves, but remains close to ‘severe’, curbs imposed

Delhi air pollution

The air quality in Delhi and neighbouring areas has marginally improved, after it plumeted to ‘the severe’ level on Tuesday.

The overall air quality index of Delhi was recorded at 391 by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on Thursday morning.

The Ministry of Earth Science’s air quality website, SAFAR showed Delhi’s air quality as ‘very poor’ with PM10 level at 370 and PM2.5 level at 215.

An AQI of 0-100 is considered ‘Good+Satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’ and 401 to 500 ‘severe’, as per SAFAR.

The marginal improvement came after the environment panel imposed curbs on some industries amid forecasts that pollution may worsen.

The Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), which is monitoring the Delhi Air Pollution levels, announced restrictions on construction activities, hot mix plants, coal and biomass-based industries, brick kilns and stone crushers in the NCR.

It said it could also restrict movement of private vehicles and entry of trucks to Delhi, if needed.

Source :- BS

Air purifiers to fight Delhi pollution: When the state abandons public good

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What is the connection between the air that we breathe, the on-going massive advertising campaigns for indoor air purifiers and relationships between citizens and the state? It is a history of the present that tells us a great deal about some of the most fundamental aspects of our lives and the choices we might make for a decent future.

 

In the period since 1991, the most significant aspect of our national life has been the changing nature of the state. In all post-colonial societies, the state apparatus has – till recently – enjoyed almost sacred status as the progenitor of the public good. Usually, the post-colonial nation-state was closely identified with a specific political party – the Congress in India, ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe, for example – and the latter’s moral legitimacy was closely linked to its role in creating a welfare state. In the immediate post-colonial period – the Nehruvian years of high nationalism – though various forms of private capital plied their trade, the determinative role of the state in realms as diverse as culture, economy, family life, urbanization and infrastructure provision remained largely unquestioned. The state enjoyed a state-ness that was next to godliness and attempts to interrogate the role of the state in the life of the nation – such as that by the right-of-centre, Swantantra Party – died a lingering death. It was a period that required stateliness to hold together a society economically and socially ravaged by extractive colonial machinery. Nehru was not a statist as much as a visionary pragmatist.

 

Unfortunately, the idea of the state as the purveyor of the public good became thoroughly corrupted in the decades that followed the end of colonial rule. Bureaucratic and political elites granted themselves extravagant privileges and access to national resources while they exhorted the rest of the citizenry to sacrifice for the national good. Newly established public institutions and utilities became sites of private enrichment by a tiny group. Slowly, but palpably, the goodwill enjoyed by the post-colonial state began to be eroded. Popular culture – a reliable barometer of the public mood – began increasingly to represent the state as both corrupt and anti-people. From the 1980s, for example, the character of the filmic hero changed from the sacrificing ‘Five-Year Plan Hero’ – the doctor, the engineer – to the unabashed consumer who would much rather honeymoon in Switzerland than invest in postal savings accounts.

 

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From smog cutters to diet tips: Vadra, Kohli and other celebs on Delhi smog

 

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Ordinary mortals are not the only people concerned about Delhi’s abysmal air quality and its blanket of Delhi smog. celebrities and well-known individuals are voicing their concerns, and possible solutions, too.

 

In a bipartisan appeal on Facebook for tackling the menace, Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra says,”Poisoned air doesn’t care which caste or religion you belong to. It is an undiscriminating killer. The time to lay down a road-map is now. The road to a solution starts with us.”

 

Calling on the Centre and the Delhi state government to set aside their “political slug fest” and focus on “the safety and well being of Delhi’s citizens”, Vadra points at China’s success at “drastically” reducing its smog levels by “employing such techniques as massive windmill style fans (to dissipate smog cover)”.

 

Calling for long-term sustainable solutions, Vadra goes on to list out some himself: “The previous Government imposed energy efficiency standards on air conditioners, fridges and other electronic appliances. This in turn led to a drastic cut in electricity consumption. We need more electric cars and buses. We need better solutions for our farmers. It is a one time cost for the Government to purchase the machines which can turn husk into safe and non-toxic refuse.”

 

He also highlighted that in the wake of reports that the Delhi government was sitting on a Rs 787-cr green fund, it was time to deploy “imaginative solutions”.

 

As reported earlier, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday blamed the Centre for blocking projects, an RTI query revealed that the Arvind Kejriwal-led government did not spend even a paisa out of the Rs 787 crore it collected as environment cess since January 1 this year.

 

As the capital city grappled with dangerously high pollution levels, the Right to Information (RTI) query on Wednesday found the Delhi government was unable to specify its utilisation of the Rs 787 crore green cess collected during 2017. The government said it spent Rs 93 lakh of the cess in 2016, but there was “no mention of any expenditure” in 2017.

 

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Delhi Odd-Even Round-3: 1.3 mn cars to go off roads, & top 10 developments

Odd-even scheme

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It’s time for round three of the Odd-Even road-space rationing scheme first brought in last year by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) -led Delhi government, as Delhiites choke on toxic air.

 

The Odd-Even plan will be in place for five days starting Monday, November 13.

 

According to Safar (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research), Delhi‘s air quality is forecast to be “severe” today, with PM10 at 895 microgrammes per cubic metre and PM2.5 at 546 microgrammes per cubic metre — these are ultrafine particulates that have the ability to enter the respiratory system and subsequently the bloodstream of humans and animals, causing harm.

 

Tomorrow’s air quality forecast is also “severe”, as is the forecast after three days from now.

 

The announcement of the third phase of the Odd-Even plan from November 13 to 17 was made by Delhi’s Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot at a press conference on Thursday. He said the modalities of the scheme, under which private four-wheeled vehicles with odd and even registration numbers were allowed to run on alternate days from 8 am to 8 pm, would be the same as the previous phases.

 

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