New Delhi, India, has started enforcing stricter air pollution control measures to reduce toxic smog during winter, when pollution levels often exceed safe limits by several dozen times.
Foreign news agencies report that New Delhi authorities began enforcing stringent air pollution controls on Sunday, 1 Nov 2026, to address the accumulation of toxic smog during winter, when PM2.5 levels typically surge to 20 times above safe limits.
These measures include doubling parking fees and urging government and private agencies to implement work-from-home policies to reduce vehicle emissions, as well as banning cars that do not meet emission standards from entering the city.
Additionally, authorities have ordered an immediate halt to all demolition and outdoor construction activities that generate dust, supplementing earlier bans on waste burning and the use of charcoal or firewood in restaurants, with 24-hour monitoring and enforcement planned.
India's Ministry of Environment stated that winter pollution sources include traffic at 23%, biomass and crop residue burning at 20%, and industry or coal-fired power plants at 9%, while cold weather traps pollutants close to the ground, increasing accumulation.
Officials noted that during winter, PM2.5 levels often exceed 300 micrograms per cubic meter, 20 times above WHO safety standards, peaking at 846 micrograms per cubic meter in 2025, which is 56 times the safe limit.
As of 1 Nov, officials recorded PM2.5 at 201 micrograms per cubic meter, 13 times above the safe limit, a slight improvement attributed to scattered rainfall in recent days.
Follow international news:https://www.thairath.co.th/news/foreign
Source:cna