Delhi gasps for breath as AQI continues to be ‘severe’, smog engulfs Capital | Delhi News
Delhi’s average air quality index (AQI) continued to be in the ‘severe’ category Wednesday as the Capital was engulfed by a thick blanket of smog in the morning.
As such, Wednesday would be the third consecutive day when the AQI of Delhi-NCR stood in the ‘severe’ zone.
While the average AQI of Delhi stood at 423 at 7 am, the most polluted area in the city was Mundka (464), followed by Wazirpur and Alipur (462). The visibility at IGI Airport was 800 metres as of 7 am.
According to the India Meteorological Department, smog or shallow fog conditions would prevail through the day.
What is Delhi doing to check the pollution?
With smog and high levels of air pollution in Delhi-NCR, the Commission for Air Quality Management had issued directions for implementing Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) from Monday morning.
GRAP is a set of emergency measures that kick in to prevent further deterioration of air quality once it reaches a certain threshold in the Delhi-NCR region. Approved by the Supreme Court in 2016 and notified in 2017, the plan was formulated after several meetings the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority held with state government representatives and experts.
Here’s what the GRAP IV rules state:
- Stop entry of truck traffic into Delhi (except for trucks carrying essential commodities/ providing essential services). All LNG/CNG/Electric/BS- VI Diesel trucks shall, however, be permitted to enter Delhi.
- Do not permit Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) registered outside Delhi, other than EVs/CNG/BS- VI diesel, to enter Delhi, except those carrying essential commodities/providing essential services.
- Enforce a strict ban on plying of Delhi registered BS-IV and below diesel-operated Medium Goods Vehicles (MGVs) and Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in Delhi, except those carrying essential commodities/providing essential services.
- Ban construction and demolition activities, as in the GRAP Stage-III, also for linear public projects such as highways, roads, flyovers, overbridges, power transmission, pipelines, telecommunications, etc.
- NCR state governments and the Delhi government may take a decision on discontinuing physical classes even for classes VI-IX and class XI, and conduct lessons in an online mode.
- NCR State governments/Delhi government to decide on allowing public, municipal and private offices to work on 50% strength and the rest to work from home.
- Central Government may make appropriate decisions on permitting work from home for employees in central government offices.
- State Governments may consider additional emergency measures like the closure of colleges/ educational institutions and closure of non-emergency commercial activities, permitting running of vehicles on odd-even basis of registration numbers etc.
