Monday, March 27 2006 12:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: Sunita Narain and Bhure Lal, credited with cleaning up Delhi's air and help build the world's cleanest transport system, are among top environmentalists worldwide whose efforts have been highly commended by the Time magazine.

The magazine notes it was a lawsuit filed by Narain, Director of the Centre for Science and Environment, in mid-1990s to force Delhi's buses, taxis and rickshaws toconvert to cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel that set the ball rolling with the Supreme Court largely ruling in her favour.

"But busmakers and oil companies, supported by Government ministers, objected loudly. So the court formed a committee led by Lal and Narain, to enforce its judgment," Time writes

And it was largely due to their fight that the last diesel bus had left Delhi by December 2002 and 10,000 taxis, 12,000 buses and 80,000 rickshaws were powered by CNG.

Recalling the days when they began the struggle, Narain, told the magazine that air pollution was taking one life per hour.

"The capital was one of the most polluted on earth. At the end of the day, your collar was black and you had soot all over your face. Millions had bronchitis and asthma," Lal, who was then a senior government administrator said.

They do not claim to have slowed the global warming but their efforts have attracted advice from as far away as Kenya and Indonesia, according to 'Time'.

"Delhi leapfrogged. people noticed," Narain said.