Delhi-NCR air pollution controls will tighten from November 5 to 20, with government and private offices in Delhi and five adjoining districts directed to operate with up to 50% of staff physically present, while most outdoor construction and demolition activity has been restricted across the region.
The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas issued the preventive order on October 30 under Section 12 of the CAQM Act, 2021. The measures cover the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the districts of Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar.
Under the order, the remaining office staff are to work from home, except in industrial establishments and essential services where such an arrangement is not feasible. The restriction is intended to reduce emissions during the period when Delhi-NCR has historically experienced a sharp deterioration in air quality.
The CAQM has also restricted dust-generating demolition and outdoor construction activity throughout the NCR. Exemptions have been provided for projects linked to railways, metro services, airports, interstate bus terminals, hospitals, water supply and sanitation, national security and defence, and other projects of national importance.
The restriction also applies to linear public infrastructure projects, including highways, roads, flyovers, overbridges, power transmission lines, pipelines and telecommunication works. The order said the exemptions were intended to ensure that essential and unavoidable activities were not disrupted.
The commission said it had analysed daily Air Quality Index data for November from 2018 to 2025. According to the CAQM, the analysis showed a recurring pattern of elevated pollution in Delhi-NCR during early to mid-November, with air quality reaching the ‘Severe’ and ‘Severe+’ categories on some days.
The commission attributed the pollution load during this period to local emissions, seasonal agricultural residue and biomass burning, as well as other episodic sources. It also cited low wind speeds, a shallow atmospheric boundary layer and reduced vertical mixing as meteorological conditions that restrict the dispersion of pollutants.
The order forms part of a preventive approach linked to the revised schedule of the Graded Response Action Plan, which the CAQM said was issued in September. The commission said anticipatory intervention was necessary to reduce emissions at source and minimise the accumulation of pollutants before and during peak pollution episodes.
In a separate direction, the Central Pollution Control Board ordered the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the pollution control boards of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to issue show-cause notices for closure to certain non-compliant industrial units. The action covers units under Clause 21(i) of CAQM Direction No. 98 that have not placed work orders for installing or retrofitting air pollution control devices to meet the revised emission limit of 50 milligrams per normal cubic metre.
Units must also have obtained adequacy assessment reports or exemption certificates. The CPCB said pollution control authorities should issue closure directions where an industry fails to provide satisfactory evidence of a work order, or a valid exemption or adequacy report, within five days. Such units will remain closed until the work order is placed and a credible compliance timeline is submitted and accepted.
The pollution control authorities have been directed to share unit-wise lists of non-compliant industries facing show-cause notices or closure orders and submit weekly status reports to the CPCB. The reported enforcement measures may include revocation of consent to operate and electricity disconnection through the concerned distribution company or district magistrate.
The CAQM had set the 50 mg/Nm3 particulate-matter emission limit in February for 17 categories of highly polluting industries identified by the CPCB, along with certain red-category industries, food and food-processing and textile units with boilers or thermic-fluid heaters, and metal industries operating furnaces in Delhi-NCR.
