The city’s air quality deteriorated to the higher end of the ‘severe’ level on Friday and is likely to continue in the same category on Saturday, according to official data.
States in the National Capital Region were on Friday directed to be ready to implement actions under the ‘emergency’ category of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to control air pollution, said an official order.
A sub-committee under the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR and adjoining areas, which gave the direction on GRAP, also advised Government and private offices and other establishments to reduce vehicle usage by 30%.
GRAP is a set of emergency measures to be taken to reduce the air pollution depending on the level of pollution. GRAP was notified by the Union Environment Ministry in 2017 to fight air pollution. Actions under the ‘emergency’ category include stopping of construction activities and odd-even vehicle rationing scheme based on number plates of vehicles.
According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, air quality of the national capital has been ‘severe’ for six out of the eight days post Deepavali. The other two days had ‘very poor’ level of air pollution.
Several other cities in the National Capital Region such as Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad, and Ghaziabad and towns in north India, including Agra, Fatehabad, Hisar, and Hapur, too faced ‘severe’ air pollution on Friday.
The air quality worsened on Friday mainly due to stubble burning in neighbouring States, said SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research). “It is likely to be the same on Saturday due to increase in stubble-related fire counts and transport level wind speed during the night,” SAFAR said in a statement.
Stubble burning adds 35%
The contribution of stubble burning in neighbouring States to PM2.5 (a chief pollutant) in Delhi increased to 35% on Friday from 26% on Thursday, and the number of active fires went up to 4,056 from 3,914 a day earlier.
“A drop in minimum temperature is likely in the next two days resulting in air quality to be in ‘severe’ to upper end of ‘very poor’ category. However, increase in local surface wind speed helps disperse pollutants. Winds at transport level are likely to reduce from Saturday evening leading to less transport of pollutants from the upwind region to Delhi,” it said.
The AQI was 471 on Friday, up from 411 on Thursday, as per CPCB’s 4 p.m. bulletin.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Government on Friday launched the 'Anti-Dust Campaign 2.0’ to control dust pollution. Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that majority of the sites were found complying with dust control norms during the first phase of the campaign and violators were fined around ₹1.3 crore. Mr. Rai inspected a construction site of the NBCC in Karkardooma and imposed a fine of ₹5 lakh for violations.
