According to an order issued on November 18, the limitations under Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP-4) that implemented in an effort to minimize air pollution lifted in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) due to a relative improvement in the air quality conditions.
The GRAP-4 limitations went into force on November 5 and prohibited elementary school students from attending offline lessons, required 50% of employees to work from home, and prohibited the entrance of cars that emit pollutants from neighboring states. According to standards established by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), when the air quality index (AQI) above the 450 (severe) threshold, the maximum degree of anti-pollution measures, known as GRAP-4, must implemented.
An official statement stated that at today’s CAQM subcommittee meeting, it noticed that the AQI was 322 at 2:00 pm, placing it in the “very poor” category. It also said that this 128 points below the minimal level needed to apply the GRAP-4 restrictions. The subcommittee’s director of technical matters, RK Agrawal, stated that there is a chance of maintaining the improvement in the AQI and that the Indian Meteorological Department’s and the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras’s (IITM) forecasts “do not show any steep worsening further.”
The statement said, “Therefore, the subcommittee hereby decides to revoke the order, issued on November 5, 2023, for actions under Stage-IV of the GRAP with immediate effect.” However, the CAQM stated that limitations imposed by the first three phases of GRAP would not lifted unless the air quality continued to improve.
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