Delhi mulls congestion tax

NEW DELHI - The Delhi government is mulling a congestion charge on cars in a bid to check the use of private vehicles and clean up the city’s air.

This has been proposed by a Special Task Force constituted by the Delhi government on the direction of the high court on traffic issues in the capital. The matter will be put before the city cabinet soon.

“There are plans to levy congestion charge espcecially on the border and other areas to discourage the use of private vehicles in the city. We are strengthening our public transport system,” a senior government official told IANS.

However, the details have not been charted out on how to go about the charge and where to implement it, besides identifying the city’s congestion zones.

Earlier, the government had planned to begin levying a charge on motorists for driving in congested areas of the capital before the Commonwealth Games to help control the number of vehicles in busy areas.

There has been a quantum jump in the number of vehicles plying on roads in the capital in the last few years and due to this monitoring traffic has become an issue.

A staggering 6,352,939 vehicles plied on Delhi roads during 2009-10 - a jump of 400,000 from the previous year, a recent report said.