Delhi NCR Pollution, GRAP Stage 4 Restrictions: With air quality worsening further to ‘severe plus’ levels Sunday evening, the Commission for Air Quality Management imposed GRAP-4, the highest set of anti-pollution restrictions, in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) starting 8 am Monday. “With the imposition of GRAP-4 from tomorrow, physical classes shall be discontinued for all students, apart from Class 10 and 12. All schools will hold online classes, until further orders,” Chief Minister Atishi said in a post on X. Under the eight-point GRAP-4, entry of diesel-run medium and heavy vehicles registered in Delhi (BS-IV or below), except those carrying essential goods, is banned. However, vehicles carrying essential commodities or providing emergency services will be allowed. Construction and demolition work, including of roads, highways and flyovers, has been halted with certain exceptions. Works related to Railways, metro rail services, airports, hospitals, defence, etc. are permitted. The GRAP-4 curbs will be in addition to the restrictions already in place under its previous stages as the region continues to be engulfed by smog. These include a ban on highly dust-generating construction and demolition work under GRAP-III. After respective state governments issue orders, vehicles may also run on an odd-even basis, colleges may be shut and non-emergency commercial activities stopped. Government and private offices can also run at partial capacity, and work-from-home may be permitted. Sunday, the National Capital was the second-most polluted city in the country, with the day’s average Air Quality Index (AQI) at 441, which further rose to 457 by 7 pm. The CAQM attributed the sudden spike in pollution levels to “continuing unfavourable meteorological conditions, with low wind speed”. “. the average AQI for Delhi is expected to remain in this adverse range owing to heavy fog, variable winds, highly unfavourable meteorological and climatic conditions. Forecasts from the IMD/IITM also indicate a likelihood of the AQI of Delhi to particularly remain in the higher end of 'Severe' or 'Severe+' category in the coming days, owing to unfavourable climatic conditions,” it said.
