The Commission for Air Quality Management Wednesday told SC that vehicular emission during winter and dust in summer majorly polluted ambient air in Delhi and NCR and gave a list of short and long-term countermeasures, including a mechanism to decongest traffic jams at MCD toll plazas.
A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi accepted the report and told all stakeholders, including central ministries and govts of Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, civic bodies and Metro corporation, to submit action plans in four weeks to implement the recommendations.
“There can be no doubt that these recommendations need to be given effect immediately,” said the bench, cautioning stakeholders against raising any objection to the recommendations, which additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati said were formulated by CAQM after extensive discussions with expert bodies including IITs, academia, research institutes and NGOs. CAQM said the issue required a whole-of-govt approach, ensuring that all ministries concerned, state govts, statutory authorities and other agencies functioned in a coordinated manner.
“We call upon all stakeholders to submit their respective action plans to give effect to these measures. The court is not inclined to accept any objection to these measures and stakeholders must submit their plans to implement the recommendations,” the bench said, while allowing amicus curiae and senior advocate Aparajita Singh to give additional suggestions.
The panel told the SC that dust was the major air pollutant, accounting for 10-18 per cent load in winter and 25-31 per cent in summer. The transport sector contributed between 19-24 per cent of air pollution in winter and 18-21 per cent in summer. Industries, including thermal power plants, were responsible for 9-15 per cent of pollution load round the year. Biomass burning during winter loaded 17-23 per cent pollutants in the air while it reduced to 11-14 per cent during summer days, CAQM said in its report.
To decongest traffic jams at toll plazas at entry points to Delhi, CAQM recommended that “MCD must ensure installation of barrier-free multi-lane free flow system integrated with RFID and automatic number plate recognition at all 126 toll collection points by Oct 2026, with a view to avoiding vehicular stoppage and reducing congestion at Delhi border entry points”.
