NEW DELHI: Two days after invoking it, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) revoked GRAP Stage-III as the city’s air quality showed further improvement, even as several city areas had zero visibility because of fog in the early hours, delaying several flights.
The lifting of preventive measures under GRAP Stage-III thus allows the resumption of construction, and the plying of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel cars, among others.
GRAP Stage-III and IV were implemented on Jan 15 when the AQI touched severe, observing a sudden spike.
While GRAP Stage-IV was revoked on Thursday as the air quality improved due to rain, CAQM kept GRAP Stage-III as a preventive measure.
However, as the air quality improved further, CAQM ordered the removal of restrictive measures under GRAP Stage-III. The AQI was 289 or poor against 302 a day earlier.
“Keeping in view the disruptive nature of restrictions under Stage-III of GRAP impacting a large number of stakeholders and the public, as well as considering the trend of improvement in the average AQI of Delhi and also the forecasts by IMD/IITM, indicating the likelihood of the overall air quality of Delhi to stay in the lower end of the Very Poor category in the coming days, the CAQM Sub-Committee on GRAP today unanimously decided to revoke all actions under Stage-III… with immediate effect,” a CAQM order said.
The CAQM, however, pointed out that “all actions under Stages II and I of GRAP shall remain.
“Construction and demolition project sites, etc, which have been issued specific closure orders on account of violations/non-compliances of various statutory directions, rules, guidelines, etc., under no circumstances shall resume their operations without any specific order to this effect from the Commission,” CAQM said.
The city also saw severe fog on Friday, and several areas reported zero visibility. At Palam, visibility dropped to zero in the early hours, while Safdarjung saw moderate fog.
“Safdarjung airport recorded the lowest visibility of 0200 m from 1.30 hours IST to 8.30 hours IST, which improved thereafter, becoming 300m at 9 hours IST. Very dense fog was reported at Palam airport. It recorded the lowest visibility of 0m from 3 hours IST to 6 hours IST and 50m from 6.30 hours to 8 hours IST, which improved thereafter, becoming 100m at 8.30 hours IST,” India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Officials, however, said that no flights were diverted or cancelled due to the fog. “Some flights were delayed,” said an airport official.
IMD has issued a yellow alert predicting dense to very dense fog on Saturday. For Sunday, the IMD expects moderate to dense fog.
The temperature also declined. Safdarjung recorded a minimum of 8.8 degrees Celsius, which was 1.2 notches below the normal for the season, and against 10.3 degrees Celsius a day earlier. The maximum temperature also saw a slight drop to 18 degrees Celsius, which was 1.6 notches below the normal, and against 19.6 degrees Celsius a day earlier.
As hilly areas have seen fresh snow, the weather department expects a further drop in the minimum temperature. The minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to hover around 19 and 7 degrees Celsius, respectively.
