As capital city Delhi's air quality improved after grappling with deteriorating Air Quality Index (AQI) for weeks, the Centre on Tuesday ordered the revocation of restrictions under Stage III of GRAP in the entire NCR with immediate effect.
The latest development is expected to pave the way for the removal of restrictions on the operation of BS III petrol and BS IV diesel four-wheelers in Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar. An order from the Delhi government's Transport Department is expected on the same.
Delhi's air quality: Status quo
In view of the discernible improvement in Delhi's air quality, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM), convened a meeting on Tuesday.
Moreover, the air quality forecasts by the India Meteorological Department/Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology also do not indicate any possibility of the average air quality of Delhi to slip to the dreadful "severe" category in the coming days.
The city's 24-hour average AQI, recorded at 4 pm every day, improved from 395 on Monday to 312 on Tuesday.
Revocation of GRAP Stage 3 Restrictions
"Keeping in view the disruptive nature of restrictions under Stage-III of GRAP impacting a large number of stakeholders and 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," CAQM said.
According to them, actions under Stages-I to Stage-II of GRAP shall however remain invoked and "be implemented, intensified, monitored and reviewed by all agencies concerned in NCR to ensure that the AQI levels do not slip further to the 'Severe' category.
Construction and demolition project sites and industrial units which have been issued specific closure orders on account of violations or non-compliance of various statutory directions, rules, and guidelines under no circumstances shall resume their operations without any specific order to this effect from the commission, it said.
