Pedalling towards a cleaner capital
The real crisis lies in major cities, where overcrowded roads, rising pollution, declining patience and poor traffic discipline have become commonplace.
The real crisis lies in major cities, where overcrowded roads, rising pollution, declining patience and poor traffic discipline have become commonplace.
Delhi’s draft EV Policy 2026 opens for consultation, proposing incentives, scrappage benefits and strict timelines to push electric mobility across two-wheelers, commercial fleets and private vehicles.
Pakistan emerged as the world’s most polluted country in 2025, recording PM2.5 levels up to 13 times higher than the safe limits prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The framework aims to improve road cross-sections, right-of-way (RoW) utilisation, greening measures and road maintenance protocols across the NCR.
The CAQM, in view of the forecasts for meteorological conditions and air quality index made available by Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), respectively, has taken a call on the preventive, restrictive measures under stage II of GRAP, invoked in the entire NCR on October 19 last year.
With the Air Quality Index (AQI) remaining in the severe category, the government has directed schools to switch to online mode for these grades until further notice.
Rahul Gandhi urged Parliament to adopt a united, future-focused approach to India’s toxic air crisis as the government signalled readiness for a detailed House discussion on the issue.
Climate Trends’ air-pollution and health expert Dr. Palak Balyan warns that air pollution is “a pandemic as severe as COVID at its peak,” adding that if cities like Beijing and London could reverse extreme air pollution, Delhi too has hope and can improve its air quality.
She said that all the hotspots will be covered under the proposed plan to install the mist spraying systems, and later they will be installed across the entire city.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), westerly winds prevailed in the past 24 hours over Delhi with wind speeds gusting up to 15 kmph. Experts noted these winds enabled the dispersion of pollutants slightly.
