Delhi govt’s new anti-pollution plan lacks integrated approach: Expert

The Delhi government’s Air Pollution Mitigation Plan 2025, announced this month, is promising but lacks an integrated comprehensive approach.

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"There are many good things about the new plan to counter pollution, but a far bigger effort is needed,” Shambhavi Shukla of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) told this reporter.

What Shukla said

Recognising that vehicular emission was one of the bigger pollutants, BJP's Delhi government said that only BS-VI vehicles, CNG vehicles and electric vehicles will be allowed entry into the Union territory after November 1, 2025. This feature will not apply to vehicles already registered in Delhi and would apply to commercial vehicles – large medium and heavy good vehicles.

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According to Shukla, “Unless there is a unified transport system, a kind of a multi-modal arrangement, restricting it to just Delhi will not work. Delhi-Gurugram-Faridabad-Noida require a multi-modal integrated transport system.”

Such an arrangement is lacking in the plan.

In her estimate, the anti-pollution plan could do with more technological assistance. “The plan misses critical technological intervention such as remote-sensing based monitoring of emissions to identify gross polluters in real time, which will help in the strong enforcement of the air pollution mitigation plan. Pilot studies of remote sensing have shown promising results, which will completely transform how on-road emission management is done.”

Audit of PUCC centres

As part of the plan, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also announced that an audit of Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) centres will also be conducted every six months to prevent any form of corruption.

Also read: Delhi AAP accuses BJP of manipulating pollution data; 'lies' says minister

Shukla said, “Strengthening the PUCC system by regular audits and amendments in the PUCC regulation will help in effective implementation of the system.”

Among the key steps is the introduction of more electric vehicles on the capital’s roads. “By 2027, 2,000 electric buses will ply the streets, and 18,000 public charging stations will be set up,” the chief minister said, adding that 2,299 e-autos will be deployed by Delhi Metro.

According to Shukla, better air quality monitoring, including the use of Chemical Transport Models (CTMs) for policy guidance, and the development of a public information system with health advisories, should be considered mandatory.

AQI issue

Such sharing of public information is missing in the new plan and without mass information, such a titanic battle against such a deadly environmental scourge will always be at odds.

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On the vexed issue of the air quality index (AQI) dipping due to increased stubble burning in the neighbouring states, Shukla said that more needs to be done. “Crop burning is a seasonal phenomenon. But more coordinated efforts are required for other sources of pollution, which are present throughout the year. Transboundary movement of pollution is a key issue and this has to be taken care of by not just focussing only on city-centric solutions,” she said.

Air pollution in Delhi continues to be an unresolved problem for the city. In winter months, the AQI levels often hit hazardous levels due to increased stubble burning in neighbouring states.

The Delhi government’s other innovative moves include the installation of mist sprayers on electric poles across 13 pollution hotspots, and the introduction of anti-smog guns on commercial buildings of over 3,000 sq m.

Temporary solutions

According to Shukla, however, these are temporary solutions and it would only help if pollution is fixed at the source itself.

The Delhi chief minister also said that the national capital would witness its first artificial rain “very soon” with the help of cloud seeding techniques. For cloud seeding and artificial rain, an MoU has been signed with IIT Kanpur as a pilot project.

Again, the CSE expert said that this was a temporary solution “because it requires exact clouds to be present for the rain to happen.”

Since taking office in February 2025, the Delhi government has rolled out a series of ambitious steps — from a 25-point pollution control plan and a ban on older vehicles to mandatory anti-smog guns on buildings, cloud seeding trials, and a widespread dust control initiative.

Says Shukla, “Delhi needs to move from its reactive interventions to an integrated, comprehensive approach, strong enforcement and implementation of the plans. It needs to focus on systemic changes and control emissions from all sources rather than going for band-aid solutions.”

Truly, given the national capital’s description as the world’s most polluted city, quick fixes are hardly likely to work.