Cars off roads, commuters make a beeline for Metro: Delhi-NCR’s new rush-hour reality

A crowded Metro, longer journeys and the occasional struggle to find space for a bag – for many commuters in Delhi-NCR, the journey to work and back home has become a little more complicated since restrictions on vehicles not complaint with BS-VI emission standards entering the Capital kicked in.

Twenty-three-year-old law associate Aditya Garg is among those making the switch. “The Metro is so crowded. It get tired even before I reach office,” he says. Like lakhs of people who live and work in the National Capital Region, Garg has had to turn to public transport after the restrictions came into effect on November 1.

Under Delhi's Winter Action Plan, petrol and diesel vehicles registered outside Delhi that do not meet BS-VI emission standards have been barred from entering the city. Earlier, Garg drove his Swift Dzire from his home in Faridabad to his office in Delhi's Defence Colony.

Now, his father uses the BS-IV complaint car, while Garg takes the Metro. “Since the last few days, I have been getting on at Sarai Kale Khan-Nizamuddin station and getting off at Lajpat Nagar," he said. The switch has not brought him significant savings. He spends around Rs 50 on an autorickshaw to the station, Rs 43 on the Metro and another Rs 60 on an autorickshaw to his office.