The rising levels of pollution and the court's observation necessitated immediate action, Arvind Kejriwal said, speaking at the HT Leadership Summit.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal today said that the government will withdraw its new rule to allow cars with
odd and even registration numbers on alternate days to be introduced from January 1 if it creates too many problems for the people.
The plan has triggered a huge debate with some residents complaining about sudden decision while others praised the move to reduce the city's crippling air pollution.
"In principle, a decision has been taken. Many things are yet to be thrashed out... We will experiment with it for some time. Maybe, for 10 to 15 days. If there are too many problems, it will be stopped," he said, speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Saturday.
Mr Kejriwal also said that reducing the number of cars on the capital's roads is not the only measure that the government has planned to bring down pollution. He said though the announcement got the most amount of attention, his government has an elaborate plan.
The Delhi High Court had pulled up the government earlier this week for lack of a time bound action plan to tackle the 'alarming' levels of Delhi's pollution and ordered it to submit one on January 21.
Mr Kejriwal said reducing pollution was one of the medium term goals of his government. "Because we wanted to redesign roads, fix public transport and bring in 10,000 new buses". The rising levels of pollution and the court's observation necessitated immediate action, he said.
Detailing the government's plan, the Delhi Chief Minister listed a number of measures from vacuum cleaning roads from April 1, cracking down on those burning garbage, restricting the movement of trucks and shutting down the Rajghat and Badarpur thermal power plants. Trucks enter the city after 9 pm right now. The government plans to change it to 11 pm.
"We are strengthening PUC certificate testing and introducing new features," he said. The testing facilities for vehicle emissions will be connected to a central server to stop tampering of pollution under control certificates, he said. The government will implement Euro 6 standards - for vehicular emission in Delhi by Jan 1, 2017, he said. The Centre plans to impose the restrictions from 2019.