New Delhi: Delhi and Gurugram’s poor air quality has been a defining feature of the regions for decades, with vehicle emissions being one of the biggest contributors.
A study published this month by London-based The Real Urban Emissions (TRUE) Initiative tested emissions from two and three-wheelers, private cars, taxis, light goods vehicles and buses at 20 sites across Delhi and Gurugram and noted that the real-world emissions were much higher than what was found in lab tests.
In the study, the researchers utilised non-intrusive remote sensing technology (a data collection method) to measure the emissions of on-road vehicles, a shift from India’s previously used laboratory chassis dynamometer testing. The TRUE Initiative has earlier used remote sensing technology to collect and analyse vehicle emission data for more than 10 cities, including London, Jakarta and Mexico.
A total of 1,11,712 tailpipe emission measurements were recorded in the study conducted between December 2022 and April 2023.
The report offered insights into real-world emissions by on-road vehicles and also provided policy and strategy suggestions to effectively deal with such pollution.
It suggests stricter emission standards, a quicker shift to cleaner vehicles and updating industry technical specifications with the new technology to combat the problem of pollution.
The report of the study, which was conducted in collaboration with Delhi and Gurugram authorities, was analysed by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).
The report highlights that Delhi was marked as the most polluted capital city in the world in 2023, and similar levels of pollution were found in neighbouring Gurugram. Delhi’s annual particulate matter has repeatedly been more than 10 times the permissible level by the WHO.
A 2023 study by Indian researchers had also highlighted the city’s constant struggle with the cycle of poor air quality and health-based standards which lead to an alarming air quality index. Both Delhi and Gurugram have frequently needed to close schools in the winter months due to poor air quality.
The transport department of Delhi, authorities in Gurugram, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and Haryana State Pollution Control Board have for years implemented various policies to reduce this pollution.
Delhi, specifically, has undertaken several initiatives such as odd-even policies, strict retirement for old vehicles and enhancing the public transport system to combat traffic-related pollution. Despite this, transport sector emissions still remain very high.
In July this year, the Supreme Court directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to implement the remote sensing technology to control vehicular pollution. One of the main aims of the TRUE Initiative study was to demonstrate the technology and provide suggestions for its broader application.
Sunil Dahiya, author and analyst at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), supports the use of this technology.
“When vehicles ply on the road, it is not a test in a laboratory or the emissions in a laboratory which impacts human health, it’s the real-world emissions, and this report talks about how real-world emissions are higher than the lab results. Using this kind of technology and technique, in combination with earlier methods, will help us understand and estimate the real emission load from the transport sector, which is very crucial to bring air pollution levels down and reduce exposure for human health,” said Dahiya.
India, in 2020, leapfrogged from Bharat Stage (BS) IV tailpipe emission standards to the stricter and more efficient BS VI. The report found that the move led to a positive impact on tailpipe emissions across all the vehicles. However, despite the improvement, the emissions were still noted to be much higher than type-approval limits, particularly for nitrogen oxides.
Noting the relative success of the shift in emission standards, the study suggests transitioning to even stricter emission standards (potentially in the form of BS VII) as well as introduction of on-board emissions monitoring.
Publishing of this standard is also suggested so as to provide legal backing for high emitting vehicles to be held accountable, and potentially removed.
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‘Two-step regulatory approach’
Beyond the National Capital Region (NCR), the TRUE Initiative report gives broader suggestions for India.
“At the national level, a two-step regulatory approach is recommended to further reduce emissions from combustion engine vehicles,” the report says.
An accelerated shift to zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) has been highlighted as an opportunity to crucially reduce emissions, specifically from high-emitting commercial vehicles in Delhi.
Agencies such as the Commission for Air Quality Management have been called on to implement sales mandates for ZEVs and phaseout programmes for high polluting vehicles to expedite this transition. Within this, the report discourages increase in usage of CNG, citing its high nitrogen oxide emissions.
“Considering CNG vehicles as a viable alternative or transitional step to ZEVs, especially in regions suffering from poor air quality like Delhi and Gurugram, may not be the right approach. Consider restricting the retrofitting of vehicles to CNG and allowing only retrofitting to EVs within the NCR,” it states.
In line with these suggestions in the report, the Government of NCT of Delhi partnered with Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) India this February to design policies to incentivise public transportation and motivate citizens to comply with the vehicular emission systems through improved monitoring and enforcement.
In terms of remote sensing technology, the report suggests the formation of a task force which includes providers of the technology for a smoother deployment of the systems and machinery.
“All the suggestions in the report are bang on in terms of how we can reduce pollution emissions from the transport sector,” said Dahiya. “The need for the shift to ZEVs is a given, but this shift will not come tomorrow, so we definitely need stricter emission standards. While the entire world is also trying to move to stricter standards, so should we.”
Different funding sources have also been suggested in the report to deploy pilots to test the use of this technology, which include the National Clean Air Programme funds and Delhi’s Air Ambience Fund, among others.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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