The Delhi Dialogue Commission, an advisory body of the AAP government, today stressed the need for an integrated public transport system to address transport -related problems being faced by the residents of the national capital.
In the meeting, led by Transport Minister Gopal Rai and DDC vice-chairman Ashish Khetan, it was also discussed that there is a need to improve access and augment walking and cycling facilities for green commuting and integrate different public transport modes.
Experts from different fields, including those from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), suggested several steps to improve pollution level in the city.
According to the government, 40 per cent of total Delhi's people travel by buses while 14 per cent people travel by cars, 20 per cent by two wheelers, 10 per cent by Metro and the rest through bicycle and walking.
There are six lakh diesel-run vehicles in Delhi (5.3 lakh personal cars and 86 thousand commercial cars).
It was also discussed that PUC norms should match the euro norms. The testing is not appropriate for new generation technology. For diesel vehicles, only density test is done which is not sufficient.
In the meeting, CSE suggested that "we need smoky vehicle penalty programme" and said Hyderabad has a better PUC system which is centralised and Bangalore has better bus system.
"CSE suggested annual fitness check of cars must be made mandatory, saying that there was lot of malpractices in Lambda test in PUC. According to Transport Department,all malpractice can be checked through back-end data because oxygen level in the data will go up," the government said in a statement.
The CSE stressed the ban on commercial vehicles over 15 years' old was not a good idea and age of the car is not the issue but maintenance is the main issue. Therefore, focus should be on fitness. The Transport Department is working on the data and will soon start cracking on erring PUC centres.
In the meeting, Khetan instructed the Transport Department to act without fear or favour against the erring individuals.
