In a bid to tackle air pollution in the national capital, Delhi government on Thursday launched ‘Red Light On, Gaadi Off’ initiative.
The initiative part of ‘Yuddh, Pradushan Ke Viruddh' campaign promotes switching off the engine of the vehicles while waiting at the red signals.
“Delhi has one crore registered vehicle, even if 10 lakh vehicles turn off ignition at traffic signals, around 1.5 tonnes of PM10 will go down in a year and the PM 2.5 will decrease by 0.4 tonnes,” said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
Every time vehicles stop at the red signal, it has been noticed that drivers do not turn the engine off. These vehicles, even when they are at the red sign, emit pollution while idling, he added.
“One car spends around 15 to 20 minutes at the red signal on an average and utilizes around 200 mL of fuel. But if you switch off the engine at the red signals, you can save ₹ 7000 per month,” said Kejriwal.
In the coming days, the Delhi government also plans to launch a massive awareness campaign regarding this.
“In the last few days, we have taken several steps inside Delhi to bring down the pollution levels in the city. We have launched an anti-dust campaign in Delhi, along with an experiment to stop stubble burning in Delhi,” said Kejriwal.
This is the time of Covid pandemic, and if the pollution level increases now, the situation can worsen, he added.
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