The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) on Wednesday issued directions banning the use of all types of generators, except those needed for essential or emergency services, in Delhi from Thursday under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
The official order reads, “DPCC hereby bans the operation of generator sets of all capacities, run on diesel, petrol or kerosene in Delhi from October 15 till further orders, excluding those used for essential or emergency services.”
As per the order essential services include healthcare facilities, elevators, railway services, Delhi Metro, airports and inter-State bus terminals and the data centre run by the National Informatics Centre.
Meanwhile, Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said he has written to the Union Power Minister seeking closure of 11 thermal power stations around the national Capital, which contribute majorly to pollution in Delhi and its neighbouring areas.
The measures under GRAP, which was first implemented in Delhi-NCR in 2017, include increasing bus and metro services, hiking parking fees and stopping use of diesel generator sets when the air quality turns poor.
The measures to be followed in the “emergency” situation include stopping entry of trucks in Delhi, ban on construction activities and introduction of the odd-even car rationing scheme. The EPCA, however, had earlier told Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh that they “should try and avert the need to take other emergency measures for pollution control as the economy is already under stress post-lockdown. Therefore, our combined effort is to ensure that there is no further disruption”.
The GRAP is a set of anti-pollution measures that come into force in Delhi and its vicinity towns according to the severity of the situation. It was notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2017 for implementation through the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority.
When the situation turns “severe”, the GRAP recommends closure of brick kilns, stone crushers and hot mix plants, sprinkling of water, frequent mechanised cleaning of roads and maximising power generation from natural gas.
Meanwhile, the national Capital’s air quality was recorded in the “poor” category on Wednesday morning, even as pollution levels dipped slightly.
According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, the air quality is likely to improve to the moderate category by Thursday.
The city recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 274 at 10:30 am. The 24-hour average AQI was 300 on Tuesday. The AQI had hit “very poor” levels on Tuesday morning and stood at 306 at 11 am, which was the worst since February. Thereafter, the pollution levels dipped slightly due to an improvement in the ventilation index.
Ventilation index is the speed at which pollutants can get dispersed. A ventilation index lower than 6,000 sqm/second, with average wind speed less than 10 kmph, is unfavourable for dispersion of pollutants.
An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”.