New Delhi [India], April 1 (ANI): The Audit Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on performance audit on Prevention and Mitigation of Vehicular Air Pollution in Delhi (Audit Report No. 2 of the year 2022) was placed in the Legislative Assembly of Delhi on Tuesday.
The air quality in Delhi remained ‘Poor’ to ‘Severe’ for 1,195 out of 2,137 days (56 per cent) from May 2015 to March 2021. This Audit focused on vehicular pollution to assess whether GNCTD has taken adequate steps to prevent and mitigate vehicular emissions that affect air quality in Delhi.
Major findings of the Performance Audit are given below:
Air Quality Monitoring System
The location of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) did not meet the requirements laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board, indicating possible inaccuracies in the data generated by them, which renders the Air Quality Index values unreliable.
Requisite data regarding the concentration of pollutants in the air for a minimum of 16 hours in a day were not available with the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) for proper air quality monitoring. DPCC was also not measuring levels of Lead (Pb) in Delhi’s ambient air.
GNCTD did not have real-time information regarding sources of pollutants as it did not conduct any study on this subject.
In the absence of any information regarding the type and number of vehicles plying Delhi roads and assessment of their emission load, GNCTD was not in a position to identify emissions from different types of vehicles that are generating significant concentrations of pollutants for framing source-wise strategies.
GNCTD neither monitored Benzene levels at the fuel stations (major source), nor followed-up on the installation of Vapour Recovery System at fuel stations to reduce Benzene emission though benzene levels remained higher than permissible limits at 10 out of 24 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMSs).
Public Transport System
The adoption of public transport reduces vehicular emission per passenger-kilometre travelled. The audit observed that there was a shortage of public transport buses, with only 6,750 buses available against a re-assessed requirement of 9,000 buses. The public bus transport system also suffered from a significant number of DTC buses remaining off-road, short coverage of bus routes, and not rationalising of bus routes.
Though there was an estimated increase of 17 per cent in the population of Delhi since 2011, the number of registered Gramin-Sewa vehicles, which provide last-mile connectivity, remained the same at 6,153 since May 2011. Even these Gramin-Sewa vehicles were 10 years old, which may have poor fuel efficiency and higher potency to cause pollution.
In spite of the shortage of public transport buses, GNCTD did not take any action to implement its alternatives, viz. ‘Monorail and Light Rail Transit’ and ‘Electronic Trolley Buses’, even after keeping budget provision for the last seven years.
Cleaner Transport- Prevention and Enforcement Strategies
Public transport buses were not being subjected to emission tests twice a month as required under the directions of the National Green Tribunal. Similarly, out of 6153 Gramin-Sewa vehicles, only 3,476 vehicles got the testing done, and that too, only once from April 2019 to March 2020, against four required during this period.
There were irregularities in issuing Pollution Under Control Certificates (PUCCs) to vehicles such as:
With respect to 22.14 lakh diesel vehicles checked at Pollution Checking Centres (PCCs) during the period 10 August 2015 to 31 August 2020, test values were not recorded in respect of 24 per cent of vehicles.
In 4,007 cases, even though the test values were beyond the permissible range, these diesel vehicles were declared ‘Pass’ and issued PUCCs.
As per the PUC database for 10 August 2015 to 31 August 2020, 65.36 lakh Petrol/CNG/LPG vehicles were issued PUCCs. However, 1.08 lakh vehicles were declared ‘Pass’ and issued PUCC despite emitting carbon monoxide/hydrocarbon (CO/HC) beyond the permissible limits.
In 7,643 cases, more than one vehicle was shown to have been checked for emission limits at the same time at the same centre.
76,865 cases were noticed in the same test centre, wherein only one minute lapsed in checking the vehicle and issuing the PUC certificate, which may not have been practically possible.
In the absence of linkage of PUCC data with VAHAN database, PCCs manually select the BS Category of the vehicle leaving scope for manipulation of emission standards as well as validity of PUCC.
There was no inspection of PCCs by the Government or third-party audit to ensure quality control in PCCs. Even those PCCs that issued PUCCs to vehicles were later found emitting visible smoke and were not inspected to ensure the proper working of the instruments. Further, the government also did not have a mechanism to ensure the regular calibration of the pollution checking instruments.
Modern technology for checking vehicular pollution through remote sensing devices was also not adopted, though it was under consideration since 2009, and the Supreme Court emphasised it repeatedly.
Automated fitness testing centres accounted for only 12 per cent of the total capacity of 4.1 lakh vehicles per annum in Delhi whereas 95 per cent of the fitness tests were conducted at manual testing centres during 2020-21, where only visual inspection of the vehicle was being done and declaring commercial vehicles as ‘fit’ was at discretion of the inspecting officer.
From 2014-15 to 2018-19, there was a steep increase in the percentage of vehicles due for testing but not turning up for fitness tests, with as much as 64 per cent of the vehicles not turning up in 2018-19.
The automated Vehicle Inspection Unit (VIU) at Jhuljhuli was grossly underutilised, with only 24 vehicles being tested daily on average during 2020-21 against a capacity of 167 vehicles per day. Further, 60 per cent of fitness certificates were issued without putting the vehicles through emission tests.
More than 90 per cent of fitness tests were conducted at VIU, Burari, and were solely done based on visual inspection. None of the key tests were conducted, which rendered fitness testing irrelevant.
The Department of Transport registered 382 new BS-III compliant vehicles sold after 31 March 2017. 1,672 BS-IV compliant vehicles sold between 2 January 2020 and 20 April 2020 were registered in April 2020 in violation of Supreme Court orders that no BS III complaint vehicle should be registered after 31 March 2017 and BS-IV to be sold or registered from 1 April 2020.
Only 2.98 lakh out of 47.51 lakh end-of-life vehicles were de-registered during 2018-19 to 2020-21.
None of the 347 end-of-life vehicles impounded were scrapped until March 2021. The capacity of the impounding pits for keeping the impounded vehicles was also only 4,000, compared to more than 41 lakh vehicles due for impounding and scrapping.
The Enforcement Branch of the Department of Transport neither had adequate staff nor vehicles mounted with PUC equipment to effectively enforce various provisions of the Motor Vehicle Rules and other orders/directions.
Cleaner Transport – Mitigation and Promotion Strategies
In spite of providing financial and other incentives to encourage the adoption of Electric Vehicles (EV), the number of EVs registered in Delhi increased insignificantly. Further, the availability of charging facilities was also limited and not evenly distributed.
There was a lack of concerted efforts by the Government to promote and facilitate non-motorised transport in Delhi.
The Graded Response Action Plan, consisting of an Odd-Even Scheme and restricting the entry of trucks into Delhi, aimed at bringing down pollution when high levels of pollution persist for extended periods, was not implemented by the Government on the majority of occasions when the pollution levels were high. The government also failed to take steps to reduce air pollution by developing ISBTs at entry points of Delhi to keep inter-state diesel propelled buses at the periphery of Delhi, which would have prevented Delhi from becoming a trans-shipment zone for other states. It also failed to shift Inland Container Depots outside Delhi.
The government did not take any action to implement the Delhi Management and Parking Places Rules, 2019, which aimed to avoid vehicle stagnation and traffic congestion due to haphazard parking. It also did not link the granting/renewal of transport permits to vehicles with the availability of parking space, as envisaged under the Rules.
There were undue delays in removing stalled public transport buses from roads, which caused traffic congestion and higher vehicle emissions. (ANI)
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