Vehicles continue to remain the largest source of pollution in Delhi — among them, emissions from two-wheelers account for the largest share of vehicular pollution. Data from the Delhi transport department shows around 1,800 vehicles are added to the Capital’s roads in a day.
A draft report on a 2021 emission inventory by TERI pointed out that vehicles are the largest emitters of PM 2.5 in Delhi, making up around 47% or 9.6 kt/year (kilotonnes per year) of the total estimated PM 2.5 emission of 20.32 kt/year.
Officially, there are 1.50 crore vehicles on Delhi’s roads — including commercial and privately owned vehicles — going by data from the transport department. Of these, around 59 lakh petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles are overage — over the limit of 15 and 10 years. So, the city only has 91,52,065 registered vehicles.
Data also shows in the last two years, Delhi has seen a 32% uptick in registration of new vehicles. This year, till November 21, the city registered a total of 6.42 lakh vehicles.
“If we see it as a growing trend, it will cross last year’s registration figures. Total registrations include vehicles from outside too but registered in the city to ply here. But the percentage of such vehicles is just 1-1.5%. The rest are new vehicles sold in the city,” said a senior transport department official.
Data also shows that registration of diesel vehicles is coming down. In 2022, it was 15,613. To date, 11,089 diesel vehicles are registered in the city.
What experts say
Amit Bhatt, Managing Director of the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), said, “Delhi has a significant fleet of CNG vehicles. Treating CNG vehicles as the cleaner alternative is not right; a real-world vehicle emissions study by ICCT released this year has proven so. This is because it emits NOx which contributes to the formation of secondary PM and Ozone. So, the transition should be from CNG to zero-emission vehicles or electric-run vehicles. This has to happen in an extremely accelerated manner in Delhi because of the sheer number of rise in vehicles.”
The analysis, published in August this year, observed that real-world emissions from transport vehicles differ significantly from their lab values. It found that real-world NOx emissions of BS-VI CNG fleets including three-wheelers, PCs, taxis, LGVs (Class I and II), and buses were found to be 3.2 times, 2.0 times, 4.0 times, 4.9 times, 14.2 times, and 1.5 times higher, respectively, than type-approval limits.
Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director of Research and Advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment, said, “The gain from reducing emissions even after several interventions in the city’s transport sector is swamped by explosive motorisation. Meeting zero-emission targets, with a fleet renewal programme, should happen in an accelerated manner… Poor urban design and several gaps in the public transport system including lack of integration, last-mile connectivity… is why private vehicles continue to be favoured more.”
