Delhi government's ‘Red light on, Gaadi off’ campaign launch postponed

The Delhi government's month-long campaign - ‘Red light on, Gaadi off’ - which was set to be launched in the national capital on Friday, has now been postponed because there has been no approval received from the LG so far, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai told PTI. The file was sent to the LG on October 21. The campaign has been quite successful in the previous years in curbing pollution.

The campaign was first launched on October 16, 2020, with an aim to cut down vehicular pollution in the city. In this campaign, volunteers encourage drivers to switch off their vehicles while waiting for the traffic light to turn green. Rai has earlier informed that 2,500 civil defence volunteers will be deployed this year to monitor the implementation of the campaign at 100 key traffic intersections. Another 10 volunteers will be deployed at each traffic signal in two shifts.

He had also informed that the major focus will be on 10 big traffic intersections in the city where 20 volunteers each will be stationed.

The campaign was supposed to be launched on October 28 as experts predicted that the pollution levels in the city may increase post-Diwali if the direction of the wind changes. The environment minister had shared that along with dust and biomass burning, vehicular emissions are one of the major contributors to pollution in the city.

A PTI report informed that based on government estimates, the transport sector is responsible for 28 per cent of the PM2.5 emissions in the city. The vehicular contribution also makes up 80 per cent of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide in Delhi's air. Also, data from the Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) shows that if people switch off engines at traffic signals, pollution can be cut down by 13 to 20 per cent.

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