Odd-even scheme: Women, CNG cars, bikes, VIPs exempted

Arvind Kejriwal has announced that his cavalcade will not be exempted in the 15-day trial starting January 1

Women drivers, CNG-certified vehicles and VIPs have been exempted from Delhi government's ambitious odd-even scheme coming into force from January 1 in the national capital. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has however clarified that he and his cavalcade will not avail of the exemption offered to VIPs. 

At a press conference held in Delhi today, Kejriwal said the scheme has received all the necessary approvals and a notification for its implementation would be issued next Monday. Violators would attract a penalty of Rs 2,000, he said.

During the 15-day trial starting January 1, 2016, motorcycles and emergency vehicles including ambulance, PCR, fire tenders, will also not come under the ambit of road-rationing experiment.

Women drivers, traveling with a male child below 12 years are also exempted from the scheme.

The car rationing scheme would be applicable from 8 AM to 8 PM on all days except Sunday and on cars with NCR and other states' registration number plates, Kejriwal said.

Cars being driven by a woman alone or even while being accompanied by children up to the age of 12 would be exempted while cases of medical emergencies would be treated on "basis of trust", the CM said.

They said that according to the plan, owners of CNG-fitted cars will need to show prescribed stickers.

Kejriwal also read out a long list of VIP category vehicles, also to be exempted, including that of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, Union Ministers and Governors and Chief Ministers of states and Union Territories "except that of Delhi".

Vehicles bearing defence ministry number plates and those of Special Protection Group Protectees (SPG) would not be covered by the rules under which cars bearing odd and even numbers would ply on alternate dates till January 15.

Vehicles from other states entering Delhi will also come under the ambit of odd-even scheme. Government has also given an exemption to bikes from its ambitious plan. 

Earlier this month, Kejriwal had announced that he, his ministers and all government officials will follow odd-even scheme.

To curb rising pollution level in the national capital, the Delhi government has decided to introduce odd-even scheme to be implemented starting from January 1. A trial of the scheme will run till January 15.

According to the government's plan, it will run 6,000 additional buses to accommodate numbers of passengers after the implementation of odd-even scheme.

Nearly 10 lakh private cars will daily stay off Delhi roads once the odd-even formula is enforced with drastic reduction in traffic flow expected to significantly reduce the high-level of pollution in the city.

There are over 19 lakh private four-wheelers registered in Delhi and nearly half of these will go off the roads with the implementation of AAP government's ambitious odd-even formula.