With winter pollution becoming a major concern, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Sunday held a virtual meeting with traffic police and transport officials from neighbouring National Capital Region districts to review preparations for the coming months, news agency ANI reported.

Source: ANI via LatestLY

Officials from Noida, Faridabad, Gurugram, Sonipat and Bahadurgarh joined the meeting, along with Delhi Traffic Police and Transport Department officials. Discussions focused on reducing traffic jams near Delhi's borders, checking polluting vehicles and preventing buses that do not meet emission standards from entering the city.

Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer

Delhi Traffic Police informed the meeting that more than 10,000 challans for traffic and pollution violations are being issued daily. Officials also discussed action against overage petrol and diesel vehicles and the diversion of trucks not bound for Delhi through the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways.

As per applicable directions, buses operating in Delhi-NCR must run on electricity, CNG or BS-VI-compliant diesel. The government will also step up mechanical road sweeping, water sprinkling and other dust-control measures, while additional enforcement teams will be deployed as GRAP restrictions are tightened, ANI reported.

The meeting came on a day when Delhi-NCR's overall Air Quality Index touched 168, in the 'unhealthy' range, with PM2.5 and PM10 the dominant pollutants, and toxic white foam resurfaced on the Yamuna near Kalindi Kunj. Stage 1 of the Graded Response Action Plan was invoked across Delhi-NCR on October 21.

Source: ANI via LatestLY (Yamuna/AQI)