(Bloomberg) -- India's capital city is shutting schools and considering curbs on private cars as air quality remained hazardous for the third consecutive day.
“We are shutting primary schools in Delhi from tomorrow till the air quality improves,” Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said at a briefing Friday. The government is also considering some restrictions on plying of private cars, where it allows vehicles with license plates ending with odd and even numbers to run on alternate days, as part of steps to help lower vehicular pollution.
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The air quality index for the city state was at 376 as of 3:20 p.m. local time Friday, according to website IQAir, making it the third straight day of readings above 300, which is considered hazardous. The levels make the city's air the most noxious in the world.
World's Dirtiest Air Makes Delhi Push People to Work From Home
Half the government's workforce has been asked to work from home, Gopal Rai, Delhi's environment minister, said at a separate press conference Friday. Timings for open air markets will be staggered to avoid crowds, he said.
The government of northern state of Punjab, which is also ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party led by Kejriwal, is working on cutting crop stubble burning that's seen as one of the reasons for the severe air pollution in Delhi and other northern Indian states. Incidents of crop stubble burning is expected to come down substantially from next year, according to Kejriwal.
A federal committee on Thursday ordered industries in the National Capital Region operating on polluting fuels to shut and stopped entry of most trucks carrying non-essential goods into Delhi. The measures come a day after the local city administration called on residents to work from home to avoid the toxic smog and ordered curbs on construction in the city.
(Updates with detail of additional steps in fourth paragraph.)
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