Traffic snarls continue at Delhi-Gurugram border; BS-VI checks not major cause: Officials

According to traffic police officials, congestion is likely to continue during peak hours over the next two to three days.

Traffic snarls continued on National Highway-48 (NH-48) on Tuesday, with congestion from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport extending towards Gurugram, traffic police officials said.

Officials, however, said checking vehicles below BS-VI emission standards at the Delhi border was not a major reason for the congestion. (HT Photo/ Representational)

Traffic on the stretch from the airport towards Gurugram moved slowly, while a nearly 3-km stretch between DLF Cyber City and Udyog Vihar, near the Delhi-Gurugram border, remained congested during peak hours. Traffic crawled past Belvedere Towers in Sector 24.

According to traffic police officials, congestion is likely to continue during peak hours over the next two to three days, with vehicular movement expected to remain high ahead of Diwali.

Officials, however, said checking vehicles below BS-VI emission standards at the Delhi border was not a major reason for the congestion, as very few such vehicles were arriving at the border to enter the national capital.

“Hardly any BS-III or BS-IV vehicles are coming to the border to enter Delhi. The checking of these vehicles is not contributing much to the congestion,” a traffic police official said.

What is BS-VI?

From Sunday (November 1), the Delhi government implemented a ban on the entry of non-BS-VI [Bharat Stage] vehicles into the Capital as part of its winter action plan to curb pollution.

Bharat Stage norms set the limits on what a new vehicle may emit before it can be sold. Manufacturers prove a model meets them in laboratory tests. India moved straight from BS-IV to BS-VI on April 1, 2020, skipping BS-V.

Under BS-IV, a diesel car could emit at least three times as much nitrogen oxide as a petrol car; under BS-VI, about one and a half times as much, according to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based research and advocacy group.

BS-VI also capped the number of particles a diesel vehicle may emit. The limit is designed to remove 95% of particles, and manufacturers meet it by fitting a particulate filter, which traps soot before it leaves the tailpipe.

Roadside readings show the gains hold up on Delhi’s roads for most vehicles. The TRUE Initiative, with analysis by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), took about 111,000 roadside readings of vehicle exhaust in Delhi and Gurugram between December 2022 and April 2023. BS-VI private cars emitted 81% less nitrogen oxide than BS-IV cars, and BS-VI buses nearly 95% less.