15 days not enough for odd-even trial, AAP govt tells Delhi High Court

The odd-even formula has helped reduce pollution in the national capital at peak hours, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government told the Delhi High Court on Friday.

Also, the Delhi government has told the court that 15 days for the odd-even trial are not enough and if needed it may have to go beyond that.

”OddEvenFormula has reduced pollution at peak hours. There are definite positive results of odd-even formula,” the Delhi government said.

The AAP government told the court that the PM levels in Delhi on January 5 were 391, a figure much less than over 500 in Delcember.

A report was sought from the AAP government on changes in the level of pollution in Delhi since the scheme came into effect on January.

The Delhi High court had on January 6 asked the Arvind Kejriwal government to explain why it was necessary to run the odd-even trail for more than a week.

"You will have to admit that you don't have enough public transport to ferry the public," it had said.

The Delhi government told the court that the odd-even formula is working and very well received by people. It also told the court that it needs more time to collate data from different places in Delhi.

A recent IIT Kanpur report had suggested that vehicular pollution contributes to around  25 per cent of PM2.5 concentrations during winters and it comes down to 9 per cent during the summers.