Delhi’s traffic passes Monday test on ‘even’ ground

There were no Monday morning blues for motorists in Delhi as people adhered to the rules of the odd-even number scheme for private cars on the first full-working day since it was launched on January 1.

Several car and auto-rickshaw users said they were able to reduce their travel time by more than half.

CR Garg, Managing Director of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), which has a fleet of 4,170 buses, told

BusinessLine that the less crowded roads had helped it increase the frequency of buses by 20 per cent.

By 11 am, when the first peak hour rush was through, some 200 challans had been issued, said Delhi’s Transport Minister Gopal Rai, as he rode for almost two hours in a DTC bus, stopping to interact with civil defence volunteers. By evening, 577 challans had been issued by the transport and police departments.

While the air quality in Delhi’s central areas improved, there was no positive impact on Delhi’s borders, around the National Capital Region, said Rai.

Many seemed to have preferred car pooling, as early indications from the DTC and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation did not reflect a sharp increase in ridership, he added.

Until 8 pm, DMRC saw a ridership of 22.85 lakh against 20.51 lakh at the same time last Monday. The DTC, meanwhile, deployed an additional 220 buses to bear the load.

There have been over 20,000 downloads of Poochh-o app, which allows people to identify and book taxis and auto-rickshaws in the vicinity, indicating a willingness to adhere to the scheme while seeking alternative modes.

Ola stated that it has seen “tremendous adoption” of shared mobility categories such as Ola Share, Car Pool and Ola Shuttle, resulting in “double-digit growth” in demand across various categories.

“We have seen 40,000-42,000 seats being offered for travel this week against 20,000-25,000 seats that were offered last week,” said Raghav Gupta, the India Country Manager of BlaBlaCar, which has a car pooling app.

Amit Singh, co-founder of bus aggregating company Shuttl, stated that Delhi specific routes witnessed a 70 per cent increase in ridership, with the Dwarka cluster faring the best in terms of the increase in the number of commuters.