Diesel ban creates chaos, luxury rentals worst affected

The second day of the implementation of the Supreme Court ban on diesel cars resulted in chaos on the streets of Delhi, with messy traffic snarls and soaring temperatures of 44 degrees, as angry cabbies hit the streets to protest against the ínjustice meted out to them.

Office-goers were stuck for a while on the arterial Ring Road, at Maharani Bagh, Ashram Chowk near the Noida-Delhi border, in Dhaulakuan, Kapashera, and Mehrauli. Later as traffic diverted, long lines of cars piled up at Sarai Kale Khan, Lajpat Nagar, Moolchand, Mathura Road, and Defense Colony.

Several protesting cabbies alleged that the police were harassing many cabs with an All India Tourist Permit, which were exempted in the Supreme Court order. Eventually, in the evening, after an emergency meeting with environment minister Prakash Javadekar, transport minister Nitin Gadkari announced that the government will appeal to the SC to rethink its decision.

On Sunday, 182 challans were fined for cabs violating the SC diktat, informed the joint commissioner of police. The SC order affects over 30,000 cabs. Taxi aggregator services like Ola and Uber, both responded by saying that they now run on a fully-CNG compliant fleet.

On a question hour reply, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed that 134 petrol pumps in Delhi, or 34%, currently have CNG facilities. And that, around 200 pumps were surveyed by Indraprastha Gas Limited in order to assess the technical feasibility. "Of these, 59 petrol pumps have been identified to be feasible for CNG facilities, and they have already been set up at 42 such pumps in Delhi," he said.

Sanjay Samrat of the Delhi Taxi Tourist Transporters Association, who was part of the protest held by several taxi associations, said that many taxis that were impounded were operating under the AIPT permits. "The police needs to justify why are they stopping these vehicles. We would also like to remind the esteemed court that only 25,000 commercial vehicles run on diesel, while there are 35 lakh private diesel vehicles. A huge number of our cars also ply outside the state," said Samrat. "The SC should also look at the pollution caused by petrol cars."

Some of the worst affected were upscale and luxury car rentals, as several high-end vehicles were now almost useless. Bhupinder Singh, who runs a taxi stand of about 15 cabs in Safdarjung Enclave, of upscale cars, says that it will be difficult for them to manage business. "Most of our cars are Dzire, Honda City, etc., and some of the drivers are paying EMIs as much as Rs 17,000. The government hasn't given us any alternative. What do we do," he said.

An official of luxury rental, Vintage Car Rental which has over 80 cars, said that there seems to be no solution in sight. "This is like a Tughlaq-ian decree, even if someone comes with a technique to transform high-end taxis, how will we fill our tanks once we go to other states," he said. "We were supplying cars to joint secretaries in several ministries, and in organisations like ONGC. Now that had to be stopped, too."

Luxury car rental Delhi Care Hire's Atul said that the worst affected is tourists that have landed in Delhi. "We have lost a lot of customers in the last two days. This is just a way for police taking bribes; several cab drivers have been paying their way though and are plying without permissions," he said.