Can't control traffic? Regulate the crowd; NGT shows how

New Delhi, July 15: The National Green Tribunal has come up with an innovative idea to regulate the unmanageable traffic during peak hours in Delhi.

To control the morning and the evening rush hours, th ebench said,"We should discuss the possibility of having staggered office timings for different offices. Varying working hours could be a solution. Courts and government offices in Delhi open at 10 am and if we have a gap of one or two hours, this will help reduce vehicular emissions immensely. Pressure on buses, autos and metro during peak hours could be reduced. Even business establishments' working hours could be regulated. The Centre can also take the universities along. If a child can go to school at 7 am, why can't a graduate?"

Being the most polluted city in the world, as surveyed by the World Health Organization, Delhi's pollution is mostly accounted by slow moving traffic.

However, NGT's suggestion is not the first such advise. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu had in 2014 suggested staggered work timing to reduce pressure on the roads and public transport. What these agencies meant by staggered timing is if some offices start work by 8 am, others can start by 9 am. Students and children can start early in the morning.

Apart from Singapore, the International Labour Office have also advocated these timings.

An ILO document said,"Staggered hours schemes represent one way of easing problems of traffic congestion and over-burdened public transport at certain peak hours. Instead of having all workers arrive and leave at practically the same time, different firms or even different branches of activity could adopt different starting and finishing times. Traffic would thereby flow more smoothly, public transport would be utilized more rationally, and the physical and psychological strain would be lessened for all concerned."

OneIndia News