new delhithe environment ministry has come up with a comprehensive action plan cap to combat air pollution in delhincr in the long run which will go handinhand with the graded response action plan grap that kicks in when air quality deteriorateswhile the draft notification of the plan was finalised by the centre in march the final plan was released by the ministry on monday with deadlines set for each sector including air quality monitoring crop burning traffic management and emission control the plan also stresses the need for a strict parking policy in delhincr and for upgrading the public transport system immediately two changes that were raised by the supreme courtmandated environment pollution prevention and control authority epca at a meeting with the ministry on mondaythe ministry reviewed all measures under cap for delhincr but epca has highlighted the need to focus on public transport as well as on a parking policy to encourage people to shift to public transport with no deterrence or a suitable system in place the number of vehicles on the roads will increase said sunita narain a member of epca and director general at the centre for science and environmentthe centres pollution plan has called on agencies to ensure strict compliance of the shift to bs vi by 2020 expand the cng network across ncr introduce more batteryoperated vehicles in targeted segments of twowheelers threewheelers and buses and to install vapour recovery systems while tightening puc norms it also asks ncr to work on diverting transit truck traffic effectively and checking overloading the plan calls for a parking policy that will physically demarcate legal parking areas and fine people found parking outside of it the plan states each parking area should have a metering system and proper signages to reduce cruising time for vehiclessunita narain said measures that have already been implemented under cap include the switch to approved fuels and ban on pet coke and furnace oil in industries this is already making a huge difference but we have asked for improvement in pollution monitoring especially for industries said narain cap further asks for better traffic management and mentioned a need to improve the frequency of the metro while introducing more buses into the system the main focus at this moment needs to be on public transport improvement we are seeing implementation in all the other areas narain addedinterestingly a number of revised deadlines proposed are of february 2018 with work on some of them yet to take off the emission and fuel quality action plan failed to address the recent orders where the ministry of petroleum and natural gas committed to the court that that bs vi fuel will be made available in 17 districts out of 23 districts in ncr and two districts adjoining ncr the ministry has also assured that by october 1 2019 bs vi fuel will be available in districts of haryana including gurgaon the availability of cng has been in consideration of the supreme court for long