The Delhi government on Friday, November 10, postponed the decision to implement odd-even scheme. The scheme was supposed to be implemented from November 13 to November 20 in view of the deteriorating air quality in the national capital.
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said, "...an improvement is seen in the pollution level. The AQI which was 450+ has now reached around 300. The decision to implement odd-even from November 13 to 20 has been postponed. The situation would be analysed again after Diwali..."
Rai had earlier said the scheme will be implemented in the city after the Supreme Court reviews its effectiveness and issues an order. On Tuesday, the apex court questioned the effectiveness of the Delhi government's car-rationing scheme, aimed at curbing vehicular pollution, and referred to it as "all optics".
The scheme permits cars to operate on alternate days based on the odd or even last digit of their registration numbers.
Intermittent rain led to a rapid improvement in Delhi's air quality on Friday and cleared the suffocating haze that had been lingering for more than 10 days. At 1 pm, Delhi's AQI stood at 314 which falls in the "very poor" category. It was 376 at 9 am and 408 at 7 am on Friday. The AQI stood at 460 at 11 pm on Thursday.
The air quality is expected to improve further due to wind speed favourable for the dispersion of pollutants. The air quality index (AQI) at any given time is the average of readings taken in the last 24 hours.
The Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi's primary weather station, recorded 6 mm of rainfall in 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Friday and 2.2 mm between 8.30 am and 11.30 am, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The Met department data showed most of the areas in Delhi recorded light rain.
With inputs from PTI
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