The Delhi government has lifted the ban on BS3 petrol and BS4 diesel vehicles after the improvement in the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the last few days. The state government put a ban on the entry of these passenger and commercial vehicles under Stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to curb vehicular pollution in Delhi-NCR. Commuters using these vehicles can now freely ply in the national capital region, including Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Noida.
The state government conducted a meeting on November 24 to discuss the issue of rising pollution in Delhi and carve out a future course of action. The ban on BS3 petrol and BS4 diesel vehicles in the national capital continued after the recently held meeting. During this period, the Delhi Traffic Police was strictly directed to implement the restriction on polluting vehicles or vehicles plying on roads without a valid Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate. The violators were fined INR 20,000. According to recent data shared by the government, almost 36% of the total pollution in the nation's capital is caused by vehicles.
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The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), which is in charge of developing plans to reduce pollution in the Delhi-NCR area, met on Tuesday to make a decision regarding the restrictions. It stated that "keeping in view the disruptive nature of restrictions under Stage-III of GRAP impacting a large number of stakeholders and the public, as well as considering the significant improvement in the average AQI of Delhi-NCR, the GRAP Sub-Committee unanimously decided to revoke Stage-III of (GRAP) in the entire NCR with immediate effect."
As compared to the severe AQI levels in the previous weeks, light rainfall in the last 2 days has also aided the AQI to improve. The CAQM also clarified that the restrictions under stages 1 and 2 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) will continue for now. To make sure that the Air Quality Index does slip further into the ‘Severe’ category', the body has decided to continue with the restrictions.
The Delhi government had planned to unveil the Odd-Even rule after the festival of Diwali, when pollution levels spiked in the capital. However, it delayed the plans after the Supreme Court called the move mere optics without any real effect on spiked pollution levels.
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