NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal on Friday questioned the AAP government's odd-even formula for vehicles to check pollution in Delhi, saying it may not have the desired effect.

"The odd-even formula for vehicles may make people buy two cars," the NGT said.

To stem the dangerously high levels of pollution in the national capital, the Delhi government last week decided that private vehicles with odd and even registration numbers will ply on odd and even dates, respectively, from January 1, for two weeks.

That is, on January 1, cars with numbers ending with 1,3,5, 7 and 9 will operate. On January 2, cars with numbers ending with 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 will be allowed to ply.

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One of the main criticisms of the odd-even formula has been the lack of adequate number of public vehicles that can accommodate those who will not be able to use their vehicles on alternate days starting January 1.

To overcome the shortage of public vehicles, the Delhi government will double the fleet of buses during the 15-day trial period, CM Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.

The government has also asked the Delhi Metro to increase the frequency of trains, allowed auto drivers to work for longer hours and has contacted the railways to streamline the ring railway services during this period.

These were some of the decisions announced by the CM after he chaired the second review meeting on pollution abatement measures, focusing on shoring up public transport to ease the pain of private vehicle users during the trial period that aims to reduce traffic volumes in Delhi.

Transport minister Gopal Rai said 4,000 private contract CNG buses and 2,000 CNG school buses will be added to the existing fleet of 6,000 DTC and cluster buses.

(With inputs from agencies)

