Inner areas showing less pollution level than outer areas: Rai

Delhi government today claimed that inner areas of the capital have witnessed "less pollution" compared to border areas, where its level has "significantly increased" during the ongoing second phase of odd-even car-rationing scheme.
The city government is monitoring air quality in the capital as well as in the National Capital Region to access impact of the plan.
"As per reports, pollution level is high in border areas which have high vehicle density. If we talk about inner areas of the capital, PM 2.5 was recorded at between 40 and 60 micrograms per cubic metre.
"But, in border areas, PM 2.5 was recorded three times more. At Noida border, PM 2.5 was recorded at 115 micrograms per cubic metre while in Wazirabad, it was registered at 142 micrograms per cubic metre," Transport Minister Gopal Rai said.

Rai also claimed that "20 lakh people" are following" the road-rationing plan.
He said the transport department has deployed its special teams at border points to keep a tab on polluting vehicles entering in the national capital.

Rai further said that on Monday which was the first full working day during the scheme, 2.54 lakh more commuters travelled in DTC buses in comparison to the previous Monday. Yesterday, 41,11327 commtters travelled in buses while on April 9, around 38.56 lakh people availed the service of DTC.
Besides, yesterday, 29,49,210 people travelled in metro while during five previous Mondays, an average of 29,96,656 commutters had travelled a day in it.

In the second phase, scheduled from April 15-30, the government added to its exemption list, people carrying in their vehicle school children in uniform.
However, the government has not been able to arrive at a solution to the problem of cars returning after dropping off school children or heading towards schools in the afternoon hours to pick them up, and suggested car pooling instead.