More Curbs on Buses, Change in Artificial Rain Dates: What's Delhi Up to Amid Steady Smog, Polluted Air

Amid ‘severe’ air quality and haze enveloping Delhi, the Arvind Kejriwal government is making plans to impose a complete ban on passenger buses except those running on CNG, electricity and BS-VI diesel from entering the national capital.

Reportedly, dates for a possible attempt at cloud seeding to induce rainfall in Delhi are now being reassessed. An earlier assessment that there might be a western disturbance that could affect Delhi around November 18 or 20 no longer holds true.

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Delhi Govt’s Plan to Ban Select Buses

News agency PTI quoted its source as saying, “Chhath Puja is around the corner and there is a huge rush being witnessed because of it. We are planning to implement a ban after the festival.”

Restrictions under GRAP Stage IV are currently in place in Delhi amid plummeting air quality in the national capital. At present, only trucks are barred from entering the city.

Last month, the Delhi government directed that all buses entering the national capital from Haryana will have to be run on electricity, CNG or BS-VI diesel. Buses entering from the NCR regions of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan also need to follow these norms.

The city government’s transport department said all buses entering Delhi from any city or town in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh from July 1 will only be those that run on electricity, CNG and BS-VI diesel. “There are plans to implement the same norms for buses coming from all states,” the source added.

Forty enforcement teams, including traffic, are deployed in Delhi’s border areas from 8 pm to 4 am to enforce the restrictions. A hundred teams have been pressed into action overall to check overloaded trucks, pollution certificates, interstate buses and congestion.

Delhi’s Artificial Rain Plan Likely to be Hampered

According to a report in Indian Express, the dates planned to induce rain are being reassessed with conditions being unfavourable around the initial November 20-21 dates that were being considered.

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The report quoted an environment department official as saying the dates for the pilot project are being reassessed since an earlier assessment that there might be a western disturbance that could affect Delhi around November 18 or 20 no longer holds true.

Cloud seeding would require clouds with moisture over the city, which in the winter, is brought by western disturbances, the report stated.

The official, however, added that the process of seeking permissions for cloud seeding as a pilot project this winter has kicked off, with the project likely to require a set of around 10 to 11 permissions, including operational and security clearances from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, the Delhi government, and the Airports Authority of India.