Tackling Air Pollution! Delhi Govt To Ask Ride-Sharing, Food Delivery Firms To Switch To EVs

In a major step towards tackling air pollution in the city, the Delhi government will ask food delivery services, e-commerce companies, and ride-sharing firms to completely switch to electric vehicles.

Reports have pointed out that the government is planning a two-step approach to bring considerable improvement in air quality. Since vehicular emissions account for nearly 30 per cent of the total air pollution, aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Uber, and other similar companies would be asked to switch to the greener alternative.

Meanwhile, petrol pumps will be directed not to give fuel to vehicles that do not have a valid pollution-under-control (PUC) certificate. These directives, which are expected to be issued this week, come under the Environment (Protection) Act.

In October, the city government launched a massive drive to check PUC certificates and deployed around 500 teams at petrol pumps for this purpose.

A senior transports department official privy to the matter shared that the directives to switch to EVs will be done in a phased manner and the department will be working on draft guidelines for efficient implementation.

Responsible Business

Business Standard reported that out of the established e-commerce firms, only two—Flipkart and FedEx have set up worldwide targets for converting their last-mile delivery fleets to electric vehicles by 2030 and 2040 respectively.

DHL, the global leader in the logistics industry, has reportedly set a 60 per cent electrification target for its fleet.

Other Major Steps

In accordance with the National Green Tribunal's directions, the Delhi government will deregister all diesel vehicles which will complete 10 years on January 1, 2022, and issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) so that they can be re-registered in other places.

However, no NOC will be issued for diesel vehicles that have completed 15 years or more on the date of applying for it.

Air Quality Deteriorates

On Sunday, December 26, the air quality deteriorated in the national capital to a 'severe' category according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

As per Times Now report, the air quality had improved on Saturday. However, it slipped into 'severe' category with AQI touching 430.

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