‘Red light on, gaadi off’ campaign to be relaunched today: Delhi minister

The Delhi government is relaunching the "Red light on, gaadi off" campaign to curb air pollution in the capital. The campaign encourages drivers to switch off their engines while waiting at traffic signals. The initiative will start from ITO and will be implemented across various locations in Delhi. The government will engage RWAs, eco clubs, and environmental volunteers instead of civil defence volunteers, who were previously involved in the campaign. The campaign is aimed at reducing pollution caused by idling vehicles at red lights.

New DelhiDelhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said that the government will relaunch the “Red light on, gaadi off” campaign from Thursday (October 26) by kicking off the drive from the ITO.

Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said the campaign is meant to persuade people to switch off the engines of their vehicles while waiting for the traffic signal to turn green to curtail air pollution in the Capital. (HT Photo)

Rai said the campaign is meant to persuade people to switch off the engines of their vehicles while waiting for the traffic signal to turn green to curtail air pollution in the Capital.

“This campaign will be implemented at Barakhamba on October 28, and at Chandgi Ram Akhada Chowk on October 30. On November 2, the campaign will be carried out in all 70 assembly constituencies. On November 3, an awareness campaign will be initiated among school students through the eco clubs,” Rai said.

The government will not be involving civil defence volunteers this year and will instead engage RWAs, eco clubs, and environmental volunteers. The Delhi Government initiated the campaign in 2020.

In previous years, the campaign engaged civil defence volunteers who would request commuters to turn their vehicles off at signals. Last year, while calling the initiative “ineffective against air pollution”, lieutenant governor VK Saxena returned the file to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and advised him to reconsider the proposal. He had also said the campaign puts civil defence volunteers at “severe health and physical risk”.

Rai said that these kinds of campaigns have been carried out in several cities on an international level. “In London, this campaign was conducted under the name ‘Engine off every stop.’ In North Carolina, a similar campaign called ‘Turn off your engine’ was carried out. After this campaign, eight out of 10 people started turning off their car engines,” he claimed.

“According to several studies, keeping engines running at red lights leads to a 9% increase in pollution. All the experiments being conducted now have a simple logic behind them... We pass through 10 to 12 red lights which means that we burn fuel needlessly for 25 to 30 minutes,” he added.