Vehicles in the Capital contributed more to air pollution than stubble burning in neighbouring States during the period from October 12 to November 3, said the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based research and advocacy group.

“While meeting clean air benchmark requires deep cuts in emissions from all key sources of pollution in the region, the mobility crisis will require immediate attention and upscaled intervention to cut down the prime contributor to the toxic pollution build-up,” the CSE said in a statement.

“The mobility crisis cannot hide behind the smokescreen of pollution from farms and other sources,” it added.

The organisation said slow incremental change in public transport systems, lack of integration, inefficient last-mile connectivity and hidden subsidy for the use of personal vehicles cannot address this mobility crisis in the city.

“This immediately requires a game-changing strategy to upscale infrastructure for buses, metro and their integration, incentive for usage of these systems and disincentives for usage of personal vehicles as is the global good practice,” it said.

According to the research group, the neighbouring districts accounted for 34.97% of the city’s air pollution while the contribution of ‘Delhi’s local sources’ was 30.34%. The contribution of farm fires stood at only 8.19% during the period while the remaining sources of pollution were in areas beyond the National Capital Region.

Providing a breakdown of the local sources of pollution, the CSE said as per its analysis, vehicular emissions contributed the most (51.5%) while the share of dust particles was 3.7%.

The analysis is based on data from the Decision Support System for Air Quality Management in Delhi, developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.

Inspection teams

Meanwhile, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said 58 teams have been formed by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation for regular inspection of industrial units. He added that 191 patrol teams have been deployed to oversee the disposal of industrial waste in the Capital.