New Delhi: The Delhi government is gearing up to roll out its new EV plan for the city. But civil engineering professors, climate researchers and transport specialists don’t see the point in fancy buses and marketing strategies that urge the public to switch to electric vehicles. They want the government to focus on the bigger picture and the logic behind citizen’s choices, instead of magic bullets.
The Aam Aadmi Party-led government has presented a tall order—its Motor Aggregate Scheme calls for phasing out all commercial two-wheeler, three-wheeler and four-wheeler vehicles in favour of electric fleets by April 2030.
While transport specialists welcome the initiative and the move toward a low carbon emission city, they want the government to focus on growing integrated public transport systems, diminishing bus ridership numbers and understanding the impact of big development projects on pollution levels—rather than solely focusing on commercial players.
“When we talk about growing public transport systems, we have to look at the service level of these buses. Do I have a bus stop within 200 metres of where I live? Am I getting a bus every five minutes, and what is the core access across the city? That transition we should look forward to,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi.
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Shift the focus area
These points were raised at a panel discussion organised by the Delhi Transport Department on the occasion of World Environment Day on 5 June. The panel, moderated by Aarti Khosla, director of Climate Trends, discussed the roadmap to making the city the EV capital of the country. The event garnered a small audience of just over 20 people at India International Centre. The session began with a presentation by N Mohan, CEO of the Delhi EV Cell, which outlined the achievements made so far and the targets yet to be fulfilled.
He stated that since August 2020, Delhi has registered over 1,20,000 EVs, with e-2Ws and e-3Ws accounting for over 90 per cent of the registered vehicles. And in December 2022, EVs accounted for almost 17 per cent of Delhi’s new vehicle sales, “the highest ever in India.”
Mohan added that the Motor Vehicle Aggregate Scheme will be applicable to cab aggregators, delivery service providers, and e-commerce entities that have a minimum of 25 motor vehicles associated with them.
Moreover, the existing petrol, CNG, and diesel-propelled vehicles on-boarded by the aggregator will be liable for penalty. They are allowed to operate two-wheeler taxis, but only if they are electric.
Roychowdhury, who has spent years tracking the pollution curve in Delhi, emphasised that the growing problem is that while travel demand is steadily increasing, bus ridership has considerably fallen. The focus area should be developing bus connectivity to metro stations and accessibility across the city.
She fears that if these systems are not developed well, the growing 30 million people residing in the city will depend on two-wheelers and three-wheelers to take them around, which will “decimate” the city. Fancy buses, multi-tier flyovers, and signal-free corridors are not viable solutions if the public transport sphere is not developed.
The capital will not be able to take on more grand development plans since “23 per cent of its geographical area is under road network, and another 10 per cent has been committed for parking. That’s one-third of Delhi given away for vehicles,” Roychowdhury said.
This stands in stark contrast to the comments made by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the same day as the discussion. In his address at the Paryavaran Sammelan organised at Thyagaraj Stadium, he stated that all developmental activities in the last eight years have increased and “not caused pollution levels to rise”.
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Need for behavioural change
The city has become synonymous with the issue of pollution. With policy after policy – be it the 1998 Supreme Court ruling that directed all public transport vehicles to be converted to CNG fuel or the odd-and-even scheme that was introduced in 2016 – curbing Delhi’s pollution levels has been an uphill battle. The panellists were in agreement that social behavioural change is a crucial factor in making these policies work.
Asish Kundra, principal secretary and commissioner of transport for the Delhi government, elaborated on plans that could help improve the state of integrated public transport today.
He spoke about a premium bus service aimed at converting two-wheeler owners into electric bus users. It promises deregulated fares, customisable routes, guaranteed seats and digital ticketing.
Additionally, the government also plans to install maps that indicate bus routes at every bus stop. An integrated mobility card that can be used for both metro and bus is also in the works.
Kundra added that there are plans to start a neighbourhood bus service, which will be anchored at a metro station and “will connect all points of interest within a 10-kilometre radius so residents can travel in a loop.”
A man from the audience asked Kundra if there was any policy shift in sight to prioritise public transport over private ownership of vehicles, since “we are still seeing spaces catered to private vehicles like bigger roads and more flyovers”.
Kundra suggested amping up marketing and using brand ambassadors to help encourage the public to utilise public transport. But Geetam Tiwari immediately refused.
Tiwari, a professor at the civil engineering department at IIT–Delhi, contended that clean electric transportation is the only way to “compete” with the reliability of private modes of transport.
“If my car is going from point A to B without getting stuck in congestion, I will still use my car or two-wheeler, no matter what fancy buses you buy,” Tiwari said swiftly.
She also suggested experimenting with trolleybuses—a vehicle operated on the streets and powered by electricity drawn by trolley poles from two overhead wires—since they are not dependent on battery technology and can use the same size of roads currently present, with some minor alterations.
Other panellists included Anmol Jaggi, CEO of BluSmart electric cabs and Jaishree Jindal, transport specialist at the World Bank.
Regarding infrastructure, Jaggi shared that BluSmart has 4,300 charging ports in the city used by its fleet. The company is planning to open them up for public use. He said he was confident on the financing front since private sector firms have also begun EV leasing.
“In less than 18 months, this [financing] won’t even be a question.”
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)