Real test for Odd-Even in Delhi begins; commuters face tough time

Initial reports suggest a lukewarm response to the scheme with the number of violators said to have gone up

Within a few hours, Delhi will get to know whether the residents in the city have accepted the second phase off the car rationing system on the city roads. 

Initial reports suggest a lukewarm response to the scheme with the Delhi Police and Transport department busy catching an increased number of violators.

In the last three days, barring Sunday, the authorities have fined around more than 1,500 people for violating the odd-even scheme.

Around 2,000 traffic police personnel and 200 teams of transport department are deployed at various busy intersections in the city to observe movement of the vehicles.

A senior police official said they were treading it cautiously as flagging down more cars would result in traffic jams on a busy intersection.

Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai, however, was hopeful that the city’s 17 million residents will make the scheme successful.

“Today being Monday is big test for odd-even but like last time I am sure people will support again,” Rai said.

Rai also reached Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Goel’s house with a rose. Goel had declared that he will flout the odd-even rule on Monday to protest against the AAP government scheme.

Though the schools and offices opened on Monday after a break of three days, cab aggregators such as Ola and Uber say that the demand of their services was lukewarm.

“At this point it is too early to say if the demand is overwhelming. We have managed to fulfill current the demand and the operations have been smooth. We have not seen a great surge in cab fares as well,” said a senior official of one of the cab aggregation services.

The withdrawal of strike by the auto-rickshaw and taxi unions was helping residents move smoothly, but there were reports of major traffic jams at ITO and roads connecting Delhi to Gurgaon.

Those travelling on Delhi Metro complained of longer queues at the stations.