Delhi-NCR ranks worst in vehicular pollution

NEW DELHI: Delhi is the worst city for pollution caused by vehicles. The ranking was done on the basis of a study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) — a Delhi-based research organisation to assess transport-related emissions from urban commuting.

Delhi ranks the worst in terms of overall toxic emissions, heat-trapping emission, and energy consumption. This is despite the fact that most of its parameters — such as average trip length and public transport share — are better than other megacities, the study stated.

According to the report, the status of Kolkata and Mumbai in mega cities is better than Delhi. In Kolkata and in Mumbai people use public transport. But despite the high number of vehicles in public transport in Delhi, people used to use their personal vehicles. This increases the pollution. The score of Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai in the report is also poor.

Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director, research, and advocacy said, “This is Delhi’s paradox. Even though the city has done well in some aspects of urban commutes, such as per-trip emissions, those efforts have been negated by the high magnitude of population and number of vehicles. Delhi has the highest vehicle stock, which is dominated by personal vehicles and a relatively high population.

The CSE released a report titled ‘The Urban Commute’ in Kolkata on Friday. The CSE has studied the pollution caused by trains in 14 cities in the country; the lowest pollution is in Madhya Pradesh’s capital Bhopal. In terms of vehicular pollution and fuel consumption, Kolkata is ranked 7th and Mumbai is at 10th place.

In its study, 6 of the 14 cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad – have been placed in the Mega Cities category, while the remaining 8 cities are in the category of Metropolitan cities. In the analysis, these towns have created fuel consumption in cities as well as emissions of dangerous pollutants and nitrogen oxides such as carbon dioxide and particulate matter from cars.

In terms of vehicle emissions and fuel consumption, Kolkata has the best position in mega cities. The main reason for this is public transport culture, compact city design, high density of roads, short distances of travel and limited availability of land for roads and parking.

According to Dipankar Saha, former head of the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB), the emissions, such as CO2, is released due to unburnt hydrocarbons. This happens because of various factors such as vehicle speed not being maintained, overloaded heavy-duty vehicles, poor roads and poor management of traffic. Delhi has to work toward improving its roads and integrating transport and traffic management.

“Delhi has big achievements to its credit, including using of CNG and scrapping of old vehicles. However, it can do better in terms of emissions by having a robust public transport and traffic management system”, Saha added.