Ride-hailing giant Uber India has written to Delhi’s transport commissioner to reconsider the state government’s move to ban entry of cabs registered outside Delhi amid the rise in air pollution.
“We would like to bring to your attention that every single one of the 70,000 cars on the Uber platform across Delhi NCR runs on clean fuel – CNG or electric, as opposed to private vehicles which run on petrol or diesel which are the more polluting fuels,” wrote Uber in a letter dated November 9.
The letter from Uber comes as the Delhi government has banned the entry of app-based cabs registered outside Delhi. The state government’s move came after the Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 7) remarked that many app-based cabs plying in Delhi NCR are registered outside Delhi NCR.
“There is a large number of app-based taxis in Delhi which have registrations in different states. If we look at the roads, each one is carrying only one passenger,” the court said. “We would like to know whether there is any way of monitoring, especially during this period of time, that only the taxis registered in Delhi are permitted to ply on roads, as an additional measure to control the pollution,” the apex court added.
According to Uber, only a shift from private vehicles to CNG or electric cabs would abate pollution. “An indiscriminate restriction on CNG vehicles which run on clean fuel will force people to move to petrol or diesel vehicles,” it added.
Uber also cited a report by the Delhi Technological University (DTU), which stated that four-wheelers only contributed to around 2% of the total pollution in Delhi NCR, “implying that there is a need to concentrate on other polluting factors which have a significant impact on emissions.”
The letter from Uber against the cabs ban comes amid the rise in air pollution levels in Delhi and surrounding regions, like every year, with the beginning of the winter season. The increase in pollution has resulted in the Delhi government also bringing back the odd-even system for vehicles from November 13 to 20.
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