NEW DELHI: The Commission for Air Quality Management has come up with a new policy document that calls for systemic interventions over a period of five years including major changes in infrastructure, complete transition to electric vehicles and phasing out of coal and other dirty fuels in order to combat air pollution in the common air-shed region.
The policy contains sector-wise recommendations for each source of pollution. The policy framed by the CAQM with the nine-member expert panel, which was set up in January, deals with thermal power plants (TPPs), clean fuels, electric mobility, public transportation, road traffic management, ban on diesel generators (DGs), bursting of firecrackers and abating air pollution through greening and plantation.
“Owing to a deficit in infrastructure and systems across sub-regions of the NCR, wide variations in baseline actions, and varying levels of urbanisation, a differentiated approach and timelines have been suggested for various sub-regions over a period of five years,” said a senior CAQM official.
These sub-regions include --- the national capital territory (NCT) of Delhi, NCR districts near Delhi --- Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat, Jhajjar, Rohtak, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar and Baghpat, other NCR districts, entire state of Punjab and the non-NCR districts of Haryana, primarily for addressing episodic events of stubble burning.
While the Delhi government has recently come up with a policy on electric vehicles which mandates complete transition of all app-based taxi aggregators, food delivery platforms and other e-commerce fleets to electric fleets by 2030, the NCR states are yet to have a concrete policy on the same.
The expert panel, which sought suggestions from public to address the problem of air pollution and framed the policy over a period of two months, considering the complexity of issues involved has suggested short-term (up to one year), medium-term (one-three years), and long term (three-five years, preferably) actions.
“This time-frame is further differentiated for differentiated into regions/areas/districts/cities to provide the space for all pockets to transform to meet the common air quality goal,” said a panel member, who didn’t wish to be named.