Delhi is the most polluted capital in the world and is one of the fastest expanding cities in terms of population, according to the Swiss air technology company, IQAir. According to a study conducted by the Automotive Research Association of India and The Energy and Resources Institute in 2018, vehicles contribute to about 40 percent of PM 2.5 emissions in Delhi.

To tackle the growing pollution, Delhi govt announced the Delhi Electric Vehicles policy – introduced in August 2020 – which is aimed at increasing the EV share in total vehicle sales to 25 percent by 2024. While govt is giving additional subsidies to buy an EV in the capital over and above the central govt’s FAME II policy, the EV penetration is still meagre.

A recent survey concluded that Delhi has the highest density of EVs in the country thanks to a wide network of public chargers, hefty discounts and a detailed EV policy. This, however, is not as fast paced and as dense as expected and a lot of experts have mentioned that commercial vehicles can be the only solution to maximize EV policy in Delhi. Taking the suggestions into account, Delhi govt is now pushing to bring more EV commercial vehicles on the road.

The Delhi government is going to ask e-commerce companies, food delivery services and cab aggregators to completely switch to electric vehicles, according to officials. Only Flipkart (by 2030) and FedEx (by 2040) have established worldwide targets for converting their last-mile delivery fleets to electric vehicles, while DHL has set a 60 percent electrification target for its fleet.

Vehicle emissions account for around 40 percent of the city’s air pollution. “The government is going to take two major steps to check vehicular pollution – we will ask all aggregators including Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Uber, etc. to completely switch to electric vehicles. These services account for 30 percent of the registered vehicles in Delhi,” an official told PTI.

Asked if a deadline will be given to aggregators to switch to EVs, a senior official in the transport department said, “It will be done in a phased manner. We will soon publish the draft guidelines.” Apart from ramping up the electric charging infrastructure, the transport department is likely to initiate discussion on having a battery swapping infrastructure in private space.

The govt is taking several other initiatives to curb pollution as well. It is also going to ask dealers and petrol pumps to not give fuel to vehicles without a pollution-under-check (PUC) certificate. “We are also considering directing dealers and petrol pumps not to supply fuel to vehicles without a (valid) PUC certificate,” he said. Directions under the Environment (Protection) Act in this regard are expected to be issued this week.

In October, the city government launched a massive drive to check PUC certificates and deployed around 500 teams at petrol pumps for this purpose. Under Section 190(2) of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1993, vehicle owners not having a valid PUC can be fined up to Rs 10,000, or imprisoned for up to six months or both. The owners are required to get their vehicles tested to ascertain if they meet emission standards for pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, carbon dioxide.

Also, in compliance 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, according to an order issued earlier this month.