Delhi's odd-even formula is a necessary war on auto industry
Two decisions - one by the Delhi government to experiment with the odd-even car formula and another by the Supreme Court to temporarily ban diesel cars in the national capital - have upset powerful automobile lobbies. The reason is this: the combined effect of these two steps amounts to the beginning of a war on motorisation. Auto lobbies fear that if Delhi succeeds, other cities could follow. Already Bangalore is toying with the idea of odd-even number rotation for cars, and others are watching with interest.
The stakes for the car industry are too high in the capital, which is India's biggest car market. The city has the largest population of registered motorised vehicles in the country - about 89 lakh as on March 31, 2015. Of them, 26 lakh are cars, 28 lakh motorcycles and 27 lakh scooters. In comparison, the number of commercial vehicles like taxis, buses and three-wheelers is about 3.5 lakh. The national capital region (NCR) accounts for 12 per cent of car sales in India and is the biggest car market in the country. The temporary ban, according to reported estimates, will prevent 12,000 new diesel cars from coming on the Delhi roads.
The objective of both the proposed measures is to reduce the number of private cars on the city roads, with a view to address the twin problems of pollution and congestion. This is exactly opposite to what our public policies have stood for till now. All the policies and investments till now have been directed towards ensuring more cars on roads. The state has been investing in wider roads, automated parking lots, subsidised ground parking, free on-street parking, flyovers and facilitating easy car finance. For the first time, there is a public policy move not to increase the number of cars. That's quite unsettling for the auto majors.
The first attempt to ration road space was the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corridor in the national capital. It was meant to facilitate the movement of public transport. No direct restrictions were placed on private cars, yet car-owners felt squeezed. Vested interests worked in tandem to create situations leading to the scrapping of the BRT. The same lobbies are active again. The first ploy is denial of the very fact that cars are contributing to air pollution in the national capital. It is being argued that the main source of pollution in the city is dust from construction sites, and thermal power plants and other sources.
The auto industry association is particularly perturbed by the temporary ban on the sale of diesel vehicles. It says other measures are needed to tackle pollution, such as diversion of trucks away from Delhi (this is being done and the truck lobby is already upset with the pollution tax imposed on trucks), stopping the burning of biomass in and around NCR and employing dust collectors and vacuum cleaners to clean the roads of dust. Another suggestion is to phase out older vehicles, which is another way of ensuring bigger sale of new cars. So the solution from the industry is "let existing cars ply and let there be more cars in place of old ones".
The goal of the national urban transport policy is to plan infrastructure for people rather than vehicles by providing sustainable mobility and accessibility to all citizens. It states that the objective is to bring about "a more equitable allocation of road space with people, rather than vehicles, as its main focus". At present 80 per cent of road space is occupied by 20 per cent of people with personal transport. This is a highly inequitable situation.
Roads are not meant just for cars and two-wheelers. Road infrastructure is also supposed to be for buses, cycles, taxis, non-motorised transport and above all, pedestrians. Schemes like bus lanes, cycling tracks, odd-even rotation, car-free zones are all designed to ensure equitable use of public infrastructure. For too long we have framed policies for cars, and to boost personal transport. It is time to correct the situation.