Why Delhi's air quality remains severe despite GRAP: A stark look at the vehicle problem

Delhi

A high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary has directed states in the National Capital Region (NCR) to urgently accelerate the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and intensify enforcement, following an alarming assessment of Delhi’s disproportionate vehicle load and the significant contribution of transport to the region’s toxic air.

The urgent directive, issued during an October 24 meeting of a high-level task force, comes as Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to ‘very poor’ levels, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) crossing 350, prompting the implementation of Stage 2 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). The meeting included secretaries from at least eight central departments and the chief secretaries of Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

According to a report by The Indian Express, senior government officials highlighted that the emphasis on transportation stems from stark data: of the NCR’s 2.97 crore registered vehicles, a massive 1.57 crore are in Delhi alone. This means the capital, which occupies a mere 2.7 per cent of the NCR's geographical area, hosts more than half of all vehicles in the region. Compounding the problem, 37 per cent of vehicles across the NCR still conform to outdated and more polluting BS I to BS III emission norms.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), a statutory body, has identified transportation and vehicular pollution as primary concerns. In response, the Prime Minister’s Office has asked the four states bordering Delhi to adopt “practical and result-oriented measures for visible improvement in air quality.”

The pollution situation worsened in the weeks following the meeting, with Delhi’s AQI entering the ‘severe’ category from November 11 to 13, driven by a mix of stubble-burning and vehicular emissions.

EV adoption lags despite policies



Official data cited by The Indian Express reveals a significant lag in EV adoption, particularly in key segments. In October, only 4,419 electric two-wheelers were registered in Delhi, bringing the annual total to 31,447. In a stark contrast, more than double that number — 78,114 — petrol-run two-wheelers were registered in October alone.

The trend is similarly pronounced for four-wheelers. While 2,331 electric and electric-hybrid private cars were registered in October, the total for January to October stands at 17,942. Meanwhile, registrations for petrol or diesel-run private four-wheelers soared to 1,27,099 this year, according to a fuel-wise analysis of the government’s VAHAN dashboard.

Enforcement and policy overhaul ordered

To address the crisis, the NCR states — Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan — were urged to deploy advanced enforcement systems such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Integrated Traffic Management Systems (ITMS).

A key decision from the meeting was a directive for state governments to review and revise their EV policies with clear timelines and implementation mechanisms to speed up the transition across all vehicle classes, from two-wheelers and cars to buses and commercial vehicles.

The states were also advised to expeditiously notify policies for cab and bike aggregators and to develop a unified portal for monitoring progress. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has been tasked with expediting a scientific study on pollution from vehicles running on fossil fuels.

Transport sector a major polluter


The push for a transport overhaul is backed by compelling pollution data. Analysis from the Decision Support System (DSS) of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology showed the transport sector contributed 14-20% to Delhi’s air pollution between November 1 and 22. A separate analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment estimated that vehicles alone can be responsible for half of all particulate matter pollution during winter.

This finding is consistent with past studies. A 2018 emissions inventory by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) found the transport sector’s contribution to emissions was the highest at 81 per cent. The current official data for the capital region shows average PM10 levels from October 15 to November 25 were around 295 µg/m³ and PM2.5 levels were 171 µg/m³ — far exceeding the World Health Organization’s safe standards of 45 µg/m³ and 15 µg/m³, respectively.

The renewed focus on vehicles coincides with data showing a decline in farm fires. The number of stubble-burning incidents from September 15 to November 24 hit a five-year low this season, highlighting the growing relative significance of vehicular pollution and prompting the central government’s latest intervention.