New Delhi: After lifting Stage IV yesterday, the authorities further revoked Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the entire Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) with immediate effect, today. This enables all cars to ply again on Delhi roads.
All actions under Stage II & I of the extant schedule of GRAP shall however remain invoked and be implemented, intensified, monitored and reviewed by all agencies concerned in the entire NCR to ensure that the Air Quality Index levels do not deteriorate further. Construction and Demolition project sites, which have been issued specific closure orders on account of violations/ non-compliances with various statutory directions, rules, and guidelines “under no circumstances” shall resume their operations without any specific order to this effect from the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM).
In pursuance of the directions of the Supreme Court, the Sub-Committee on Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) of the CAQM invoked GRAP Stages III & IV when the average AQI of Delhi breached the 350 mark on January 15, 2025, and started to exhibit a sharp increasing trend, indicating a possibility to even breach the 400 mark.
Upon improvement in AQI of Delhi on January 16 to a level of 302, the Sub-Committee revoked Stage IV. However, only as a matter of precaution, considering the uncertainties in the model predictions and abrupt fluctuations in the meteorological factors, Stage III of GRAP was continued and it was decided that the situation will be reviewed subsequently.
Today, Delhi’s average AQI significantly improved as the AQI of the day clocked 289 as per the AQI Bulletin provided by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), clearly indicating a downward trend. Given this trend of improvement in the average AQI of Delhi, the CAQM Sub-Committee on GRAP met today to review the current air quality scenario in the region as well as the forecasts for meteorological conditions and air quality index and accordingly decided to revoke Stage III of GRAP.
While comprehensively reviewing the overall air quality parameters of Delhi-NCR, the Sub-Committee observed as under:
- AQI of Delhi has been continuously improving and has been recorded as 289 (“Very Poor”) on January 17, 2025, which is about 61 AQI points below the benchmark as directed by the Supreme Court for invoking Stage III.
- As per the Air Quality & Weather forecast, there is a likelihood of the AQI of Delhi to remain in the lower end of ‘Very Poor’ category in the coming days owing to favourable meteorological conditions and strong wind speeds.
While GRAP Stage-III has been revoked, keeping in view the winter season when weather conditions may not be always favourable and to ensure that the AQI levels do not slip further, the Sub-Committee, shall keep a close watch on the air quality scenario and review the situation from time to time for further appropriate decisions depending upon the air quality in Delhi and forecast for meteorological conditions and air quality index.
– global bihari bureau
