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Airpocalypse: Why Delhi chokes every winter despite knowing the way forward
Delhi-NCR faces its annual air pollution crisis with schools closed and vehicles restricted. Numerous government panels are meeting, examining familiar problems and recommendations. Solutions are known, but implementation and enforcement remain weak. Significant funding is needed for transitions like electric vehicles and better infrastructure. The problem persists despite decades of discussions and committees.
The annual ritual of air 'apocalypse' is playing out once again in the national capital and its vicinity - schools are shuttered, work from home is back, masks are on, some categories of vehicles are barred from entering yet again even as courts lament the lack of governmental action, call for latest reports and deadline-linked action points to target the capital's lethal air quality index.
There are numerous government panels holding hectic deliberations yet again examining a known problem - often with similar experts and now familiar recommendations.
On December 15, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) for Delhi-NCR set up an expert panel to holistically examine the problem of vehicular air pollution and suggest solution pathways.
Barely a week before, on December 7, the Delhi government announced three committees at one go - a 11-member expert panel, a 16-member implementation committee and an eight-member innovation panel to identify the best tech solutions to address the intractable problem of air pollution that plagues Delhi-NCR.
Besides, a flurry of high-level meetings has been held by the Prime Minister's Office and Niti Aayog over the last few months, with various ministries and departments, to find effective and time-bound solutions to mitigate the crisis.
Even further back, taking cognizance of the scale of the problem - a 'haze hood' that not only bogs down Delhi but extends over the entire Indo-Gangetic plain every winter - in September 2024, the Centre set up a 'Coordination Committee for Air Quality Management in Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP)'. The panel is yet to submit its report.
The problem, however, is much older than these committees.
In a similar scenario in 2017 - with Delhi under a smog of polluted air with severe AQI - the environment ministry set up a 7-member committee under the then secretary to continuously monitor the short-term and long-term solutions to air pollution.
Back in 2013, the then AAP-led Kejriwal government also instituted a study on the various sources of pollution.
Incidentally, recommendations made over a decade back in this 2015 IIT study are still relevant and continue to echo across all reports that have followed.
The study - 'Source Apportionment Study of PM2.5 and PM10' - suggested that the capital switched increasingly to electric and hybrid vehicles - starting with at least 2% of the city's two-wheelers, 10% of three-wheelers and 2% of four-wheelers.
It further called for vacuum sweeping of the city's major roads four times a month, complete ban on the use of coal, burning of municipal solid waste in the entire NCR besides crop residue in Punjab and Haryana, apart from handling construction dust.
It also pitched for use of ultra-low sulphur fuel, higher emission standard vehicles in the city and steps to regulate emissions of power plants within 300 km of Delhi.
In 2025 too, similar steps are being announced afresh from an EV-centric approach to barring under BS-IV vehicles into Delhi to end-to-end paving of roads.
"The question arises - what we have been doing for over a decade despite rounds of meetings and panels. The fact is solutions are well known and have been recommended and underlined repeatedly. The problem is implementation and enforcement. Delhi still has mere patches of end-to-end paved roads, there is rampant garbage burning across the city, old high emission vehicles continue to ply, and small industry runs as always," a sector expert involved in many such deliberations told ET on the condition of anonymity.
It is clear that tighter enforcement measures show results, he added, pointing to the decrease in stubble fires over the last few years - though the jury is out on satellites missing the changed shifted timing of farm fires.
The Centre's December 1 press statement put out data to show that Punjab recorded a 53% drop in farm fires in 2025 from 2024 and a 90% drop from 2022 figures. Haryana also posted a significant decline - a 53% drop from 2024 and 81% fall from 2022. Stiffer targets are lined up for next year.
Yet another senior government official, who has been part of these deliberations, pointed to the other big elephant in the room - money.
The UK has poured money since 2022 to enable creation of an Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in London, investing over GBP 130 million into building new infrastructure, public transport and more to cut PM 2.5 in the capital.
Closer home, Beijing is estimated to have spent 18 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion) as of 2017 to fight air pollution.
"At least 8-10 lakh crore will be needed to be invested in Delhi-NCR if we want to truly cut air pollution. This is so far not forthcoming, as far as deliberations are concerned. Without government funding and private partnerships, it is frankly difficult to make this big transition. After all, roads need to be relaid, paved end-to-end to arrest road dust, massive EV infrastructure needs to be put in place, public transport fleets must go electric, only high-quality fuel and stringent emission vehicles have to ply and this will need government subsidy/incentive. Industry also will need hand holding, especially smaller set ups to transition to better technology," another expert, part of ongoing deliberations, said. The involvement of multiple agencies poses a logistical challenge.
In 2020, amid hearings in the Supreme Court over the air pollution problems plaguing the national capital and its vicinity, the Centre hurriedly brought in an ordinance to set up the Commission for Air Quality management in NCR and adjoining areas.
CAQM was later backed by the legislature and is a key body that coordinates airshed-linked action plans in Delhi, UP, Rajasthan and Haryana on air pollution, but lacks teeth and has inadequate workforce and trained personnel and implementation mechanisms. There is also the factor of public memory.
While Delhi-NCR reels under air pollution through the year, the visibility of it in winter spurs all into 'seasonal' action - from creation of new committees to raps from courts, sparking temporary action. The problem is clear as are solutions, says a former environment secretary well versed with the issue.
An all-year round, mission-mode approach solidly backed with fund flow and a well-armed execution matrix incentivising positive air moves by the public rather than bans and barriers, he adds. Meanwhile, Delhi is gasping, gagging and choking.
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Source: EconomicTimes
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