Delhi has the world's worst air - here's how it's going to turn around

 

Henrik Samuelsson/TT 

 

Published 06.00

           

          Today, just over one in 20 motor vehicles in the Delhi area is emission-free. Here you can see one              of them, an electric rickshaw. Photo: Manish Swarup/AP/TT

The Indian capital is known for what is perhaps the world's most dangerous air. But now action is being taken. A new law at the turn of the year will mean that all new smaller vehicles in the Delhi area will run on electricity from 2027.

The metropolitan area has tens of millions of inhabitants, and is often noted for air that is so dirty that it ends up among the world's top polluters.

But now India wants to follow the examples from China, where several giant cities are rapidly removing exhaust from the streets so that air quality will improve.

On July 1, a new law was introduced in Delhi that will gradually ban exhaust vehicles. 70 percent of all vehicles in the giant city are two- and three-wheelers, ranging from mopeds to various types of rickshaws and tuktuks that can carry a number of passengers or hundreds of kilos of cargo. From the turn of the coming year, no new three-wheelers with exhaust pipes will be allowed, and from 2028, two-wheelers will also be subject to the same rules.

When it comes to passenger cars and larger vehicles, a more cautious approach is being taken, but economic carrots are being introduced so that anyone who scraps an exhaust-emitting car or buys an electric car will receive a premium, reports the AP news agency.

“Wintering without smog”

The regional law is not the first in India, but it is seen as the most important. First, it is unusually far-reaching, and second, Delhi is both the capital and the country’s largest city.

“Delhi’s plan for electric vehicles is one of the most ambitious I have seen in India,” Jaideep Saraswat, an expert at the think tank Vasudha Foundation, told the AP.

He sees the rules as a signal of the inevitability of the transition. As in China – where the number of electric light vehicles is up to many hundreds of millions – he believes that the measures will be popular.

– I live in Delhi myself and I am sure that everyone will be happy about this. To experience winters without smog.

It is when winter is usually the worst, when the winds subside and pollution settles like a lid over the city.

“Three years ago”

Traffic drivers AP spoke to wonder if the infrastructure to keep the batteries charged will be able to keep up. But moped rider Shyam Singh is happy to have switched to electric.

– It has been three years since I queued and paid for petrol. In the meantime, it has become more and more expensive.

– So I save even if I charge outside in the city, he tells the AP.

Siddhant Jha says that his old moped can probably roll for a while longer.

– I want to wait a few years, for better models, he says, referring to the electric range.

– The 150,000 rupees (about 15,000 kronor) I have in my budget will last longer then, he explains to the AP.