International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | December 2022 | Vol 9 | Issue 12 Page 4765 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Ray S et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2022 Dec;9(12):4765-4773 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Protocol Are citizens of Delhi willing to stop using private vehicles for their daily office commute in order to reduce air pollution and related ailments? A protocol for a contingent valuation study Shomik Ray*, Ranjana Singh, Sukanya Pathak INTRODUCTION The present era of rapid urbanization and modernization comes with the challenge of maintaining air quality for which multi-faceted approaches aimed at various stakeholder groups including public health interventions and effective governance are required. Based on the live air quality and pollution city ranking by IQAir, Delhi remains the most polluted city in the world (as of March 2022). 1 Air pollution poses a greater environmental concern not only in terms of climate change but also the increased risk of morbidity and mortality associated with it and its impact on public as well as individual health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that many adverse health outcomes are a result of exposure to air pollution such as cardiovascular diseases, respiratory infections and lung cancer. The fine particulate matter (PM2.5) particles have been referred to as the most harmful pollutants as they can be easily inhaled into the airways due to their microscopic size, resulting in premature mortality. 1,2 The increased vehicular traffic congestion in the metropolitan cities and the inefficient modes of transport ABSTRACT Background: Increased vehicular traffic is associated with higher levels of air and noise pollution which in turn causes high morbidity and mortality. Governments, including Delhi have invested high amounts in setting up and running public transport systems in order to rationalize road usage and limit vehicles on road. This study proposes to assess the willingness of the citizens to give up their private vehicles in favor of public transport and will provide specific policy recommendations. Methods: This study will be conducted in Delhi/NCR along the Delhi metro route. A systematic review and cross- sectional community survey will be carried out to meet the study objectives. Data will be captured through computer aided personal interviews (CAPI) using contingent valuation methods (CVM). This study will provide information on the perceptions and attitudes of commuters towards the current public transport system and the economic value placed by them on private transportation and provide an estimate of the welfare gain associated with it. Specific objective wise outputs have been framed. This will be the first study using contingent valuation methods (CVM) in a similar setting in India. Conclusions: The result will provide an evaluation of the public transport system of Delhi NCR from a user perspective. The willingness to pay values will provide a monetary value to the health benefits arising from shift from private to public modes of transport along with workable models of interventions for policy makers. Keywords: Air and noise pollution, Contingent valuation, COVID-19, Outdoor pollution, Willingness to pay Indian Institute of Public Health- Delhi (PHFI), Gurugram, Haryana, India Received: 13 September 2022 Revised: 07 November 2022 Accepted: 08 November 2022 *Correspondence: Shomik Ray, E-mail: shomikray88@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20223243