Delhi embraces car restrictions on key working day
New restrictions on private cars, which are being enforced to tackle hazardous pollution levels in Delhi, faced their first serious test on Monday as residents headed back to work following the New Year weekend.
The scheme was launched on Friday and authorities in the Indian capital said that most drivers had complied with the rules, which require private cars with even- and odd-number plates to take to the roads on alternate days until 15 January.
There were fears many would flout the rules on the scheme's first full working day.
But the city's usually clogged roads saw less traffic than normal, police said, suggesting motorists with odd-number plates had sought alternative ways of getting around.
One way of getting people on board was through a full-page advertisement in Monday's newspapers which compared the lungs of a 52-year-old Delhi citizen with those of a resident of a similar age from Himachal Pradesh, a mountainous state in northern India.
"DELHI HAS NOW DECLARED A WAR ON AIR POLLUTION. ON WHICH SIDE ARE YOU?" it asked readers.