Monitoring Delhi pollution, will impose emergency measures if needed: EPCA

The Supreme Court-appointed Environment Protection Authority on Thursday said it was closely monitoring the situation and if the pollution shows an increasing trend then emergency measures will be imposed in the national capital.

The emergency measures would be implemented as prescribed under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

Under the GRAP, stringent actions are implemented based on the air quality of the city.

The measures like banning entry of heavy vehicles and odd-even scheme are implemented if the air quality slips to severe plus emergency category.

"We have already banned the entry of heavy vehicles in the city and are closely monitoring the situation and if the pollution shows an increasing trend then we will impose emergency measures," an EPCA member said.

The Delhi government's transport department has already banned the entry of heavy vehicles in the city from 11 pm on Thursday to 11 pm on November 11 based on the recommendation of the Central Pollution Control Board.

A thick haze engulfed Delhi on Thursday as it recorded its worst air quality of the year the morning after Diwali, with the pollution level entering "severe-plus emergency" category or ten times the permissible limit due to rampant bursting of toxic firecrackers in gross violation of a Supreme Court order, authorities said.

Partly as a result of smoke from the firecrackers, the overall AQI in Delhi jumped to 642 which falls in the "severe-plus emergency" category, according to data by the Centre-run SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research).