Red Light On, Engine Off: The Campaign to improve the Air Quality of Indore.
Indore has done a lot of hard work to top the list of India’s Cleanest City 5 times in a row. Every year, our city starts a new campaign that aims at making Indore a cleaner city in a different sense. The major aim of Indore this year is to make its air cleaner. Why? Well, Indore’s Air Quality Index got to the worst numbers in 2021. Did you know that the city’s air quality was even worse than Delhi & Mumbai for a few days in 2021? Yes, you have read that right and this is the reason we need to work on the air quality of our city. And so, the authority of Indore has begun the campaign “Red Light On, Engine Off” Campaign. What is it & what is being done in this initiative; hold on till the end of this article to know.
If you have been in the city, you might have noticed volunteers asking vehicle drivers on signals to switch off their engines on the red light, right? Well, yes. This is what the campaign is all about. On researching on the causes of air pollution, it was found that one of the major causes was vehicles. An abundant number of vehicles run on the streets of Indore. We can’t stop them but when they keep running while standing in the red light, we sure can switch them off for that time. Ashish Tiwari, CEO, Indore Talk, says that Indore is developing at a rapid pace like the big cities Mumbai and Delhi & so is the pollution. To stop Indore from topping the list of polluted cities like other big places, people should start working from now. If we all start maintaining the AQI of the city from the present, our future will be cleaner & better. Mr. Tiwari states that 15-20% of the contribution to the air pollution of the city comes from the vehicles that stay switched on in the red lights on signals.
The ultimate aim of this campaign is to alert the public on the worsening air quality of Indore & inject in them the habit of turning off vehicles’ engines when standing in the red light. This is because there is always a time of a minute to one & a half before the green light turns on. This campaign has been initiated by the Indore Municipal Corporation along with the city’s commissioner. A total of 19 organizations from Indore have taken part in the campaign wherein these organizations are given different squares of Indore for 15 days, to volunteer & aware people about switching off their engines on a red light. Team Indore Talk has also taken part & we are volunteering at the LIG Square of the city.
The major challenge this campaign is facing is to convince people of the activity. Many drivers feel that switching off and again turning it on in a short span of time ultimately degrades the quality of the engine. However, there is no such concept in real life; petrol is in fact saved by doing this. Another challenge is making people habitual of this. Injecting habits and accepting change is a big challenge for humans and so, this new habit will take time to show results.
We, the team of Indore Talk request you all to support us in this fruitful campaign to make the air quality of Indore better. So many people and organizations are working to make this campaign successful but nothing is possible without your support. So, the next time you take your bike or car out on the roads, remember to turn your engine off in the red lights and be a part of the ‘Red Light On, Engine Off’ campaign.
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Article By: Kavery Parasher
