New Delhi has rolled out an emergency plan from Monday to tackle the rising air pollution in the national capital, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said.

Share Market Live

NSE

The air pollution in the city, as of 10:00 AM, stood at 235. The rising pollution levels can cause breathing discomfort and other major health issues.

The overall air quality index(AQI) on Sunday stood at 208 which falls in the poor category. On Saturday, the AQI of the national capital stood at 300,according to Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research.

A slew of measures are being taken by the CPCB to fight pollution in the forthcoming winter season.

Here's what the plan aims to do:

The plan aims to fight ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ air pollution levels of the city.

Category-wise steps such as a ban on diesel power generator sets and construction activity in the city, seizing polluting vehicles, meticulous and planned cleaning, sweeping, sprinkling of water on roads and identifying road stretches with high dust generation will also be done. And if the condition becomes worse than what it is, rolling out odd-even scheme is also one of the options.

If the air quality slips to 'very poor', the authorities are likely to charge the parking fees 3-4 times higher than the usual fee in order to increase the frequency of public transport.

In addition to GRAP, the CPCB has also deployed 41 teams across the Delhi NCR to monitor proper implementation of norms enforced to prevent pollution at the source.

If the air quality crosses severe plus emergency category, then the entry of trucks into the capital will be banned, construction activities will be stopped and a task force will be appointed to take a decision on shutting of schools, among others.

(With inputs from PTI)

Have you signed up for Primo, our daily newsletter? It has all the stories and data on the market, business, economy and tech that you need to know.

First Published:Oct 15, 2018 11:38 AM IST