Air better, emergency measures rolled back in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The four-fold hike in parking charges was reversed and trucks were allowed back into the capital as some of the “air emergency” measures were rolled back on Thursday, after Delhi’s air quality had stayed below emergency levels for more than 48 hours.

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Air Pollution in (city)	Pollution level avg. (<60=safe)
Delhi	189.8
Gurgaon	192.2
Noida	240.1
Ghaziabad	271.1
Faridabad	163.2
Moradabad	247.7
Bhiwadi	187.5
Agra	176
Kanpur	170.4
Lucknow	203.3
Jaipur	164.6

Announcing this relief, the Supreme Court-appointed environment pollution (prevention and control) authority (EPCA) on Thursday morning also lifted the ban imposed on construction activities in Delhi-NCR. However, the National Green Tribunal stayed that measure till Friday. It said the construction ban could be lifted if the air quality does not deteriorate too drastically.

Although Delhi’s air quality has improved from the “severe” levels seen till Monday, the air continued to remain “very poor”.

The decision on re-entry of trucks and reduction in parking fees was approved by the lieutenant governor in the evening.

The EPCA’s directions came after a meeting in the morning, with letters sent to chief secretaries of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to lift the restrictions which had been imposed as a part of the “emergency” measures in the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

EPCA said the restrictions were removed as Delhi’s air quality had remained below the “severe” level for the past 48 hours till 8am on November 16.

EPCA removed the hike in parking fees – a move under the “very poor” category– due to poor enforcement and a lack of public transport. “EPCA has been informed of the problems of ineffective enforcement of this measure and that it has led to increased parking on the road, which adds to the traffic congestion. EPCA believes this is because of lack of enforcement...the measure has been ineffective partly because of lack of public transport and partly because of poor enforcement of illegal and unauthorised parking,” said Bhure Lal, EPCA chairman, in his letter to the chief secretaries. EPCA added that these problems would need to be sorted out soon so the measure can be re-imposed with effective enforcement. According to the letter, all the other measures will remain in force and may be removed if the air quality improves further and stabilises.

The LG lifted the ban on the entry of trucks and reversed the enhanced parking fees by around 4pm on Thursday. The ban on construction activities was not removed as the matter was being heard in both NGT and high court on the same day, pursuant to orders dated November 11 and November 9, respectively. By the evening, the transport department had already notified the change, allowing trucks into the capital, while the corporations also passed an order to revoke parking fees back to the original rates. Rates in metro parking were also reversed to the original rates.