The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) imposed stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) on Sunday following the worsening air quality in Delhi-NCR. The directions will be effective from Monday from 8 am. This move comes amid the significant rise in the national capital’s AQI, which crossed the 500-mark in several areas in the previous week.
On Monday, as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) at 7 am, the AQI recorded in Anand Vihar (487), Chandni Chowk (444), IGI Airport-T3 (494), Dwarka (499) was recorded as “severe.” The stage four restrictions were directed as the GRAP subcommittee held an urgent meeting on Sunday, which reviewed the current air quality, meteorological conditions, and forecasts from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) for the national capital.
The subcommittee had previously invoked Stage-I, Stage-II, and Stage-III actions on October 14, October 21, and November 14, respectively. Starting Monday (November 18) all schools across Delhi will discontinue its physical classes except for Class 10 and Class 12. In a tweet on X, the Delhi Chief Minister Atishi added that all schools will hold online classes until further notice. “With the imposition of GRAP-4 from tmrw, physical classes shall be discontinued for all students, apart from Class 10 and 12. All schools will hold online classes, until further orders,” she wrote.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an “orange alert” warning for Delhi on Monday, saying that the national capital may witness “dense” to “very dense” fog that could reduce visibility to as low as 200 metres in several parts of the city and surrounding areas.
An IMD official, on Sunday, confirmed, “There are chances of dense to very dense fog in Delhi on Monday, with smog expected later in the day.” The alert comes as the national capital experiences one of its foggiest days of the season.The weather agency forecast for Monday predicts that the fog and smog will affect airports, highways, and railway routes, leading to difficult driving conditions and slower travel times across the region.
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