New Delhi: The intersection of Delhi's hottest day this year (43 degrees) and huge protests by taxi drivers left large parts of the capital grid-locked through Monday. By the evening, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government will ask the Supreme Court to reconsider a ban on diesel cabs, that has pulled nearly 30,000 taxis off the roads.
On Saturday, judges refused industry requests for more time to switch from diesel to greener compressed natural gas (CNG).
Mr Gadkari said that the government will ask the court to consider the huge problems confronting commuters as well as the exercises it has already undertaken to check pollution.
Angry taxi drivers blocked key intersections in Delhi and the satellite city of Gurgaon on Monday morning, bringing peak-hour traffic to a standstill for hours.
"You can't have knee-jerk solutions to long-standing problems," Balwant Singh, who heads a taxi union of 500 members, said at a noisy demonstration in central Delhi.
Some drivers said they knew of no available technology to switch from diesel to CNG and would instead be forced to buy new taxis.
A 2014 World Health Organisation survey of more than 1,600 cities ranked Delhi as the most polluted, partly because of the nearly 10 million vehicles on its roads.
But Delhi-based research institute TERI said its analysis found the measures had not significantly reduced concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 during the first week.
On Saturday, judges refused industry requests for more time to switch from diesel to greener compressed natural gas (CNG).
Mr Gadkari said that the government will ask the court to consider the huge problems confronting commuters as well as the exercises it has already undertaken to check pollution.
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Angry taxi drivers blocked key intersections in Delhi and the satellite city of Gurgaon on Monday morning, bringing peak-hour traffic to a standstill for hours.
"You can't have knee-jerk solutions to long-standing problems," Balwant Singh, who heads a taxi union of 500 members, said at a noisy demonstration in central Delhi.
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Some drivers said they knew of no available technology to switch from diesel to CNG and would instead be forced to buy new taxis.
Advertisement
A 2014 World Health Organisation survey of more than 1,600 cities ranked Delhi as the most polluted, partly because of the nearly 10 million vehicles on its roads.
Advertisement
But Delhi-based research institute TERI said its analysis found the measures had not significantly reduced concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 during the first week.
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