Union Environment Minister reviews Delhi-NCR Air Pollution Action Plan with Chief Minister (NCT Delhi)

Bhupender Yadav, yesterday held a comprehensive review meeting with the Chief Minister of NCT Delhi, Smt. Rekha Gupta and senior officials of the Delhi Government, to assess the progress of ongoing measures aimed at improving air quality in the National Capital. During the meeting, the Minister emphasized the need for accelerated implementation, stronger inter-agency coordination and strict enforcement to ensure substantial reduction in pollution levels before the onset of the winter season. Other dignitaries present in the meeting included Shri Pravesh Sahib Singh, Minister for Public Works Department, and Sardar Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Minister for Environment, Forest and Wildlife, GNCTD.

Yadav underlined that air pollution mitigation requires sustained and coordinated action by all stakeholders. He appreciated the efforts being undertaken by the Delhi Government while stressing that identified implementation gaps must be addressed in a mission-mode manner. He said, “The coming months are crucial for Delhi’s air quality management. Timely completion of planned interventions, strict enforcement and coordinated action on the ground are essential to protect public health and improve the quality of life for citizens.”

Reviewing the issue of road dust mitigation, the Minister noted the need for a more focused approach to meet annual targets for road redevelopment and address delays in planning, tendering, issuance of work orders and supply-chain disruptions. He urged the Delhi Government to expedite execution as per a targeted action plan, so that all pending redevelopment works are completed by October 2026. Shri Yadav also called for extensive greening activities alongside roads by identifying open patches, to minimize dust pollution. He further highlighted that the pending Memorandum of Agreement  (MoA) with the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) and School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) may be finalized by the end of May 2026, to ensure adherence to prescribed road development standards.

The Minister also reviewed the deployment of Mechanized Road Sweeping Machines (MRSMs) and observed the need for a significant increase in their current numbers. He requested the Delhi Government to intensify road-cleaning operations and ensure deployment of 78 large and medium MRSMs, along with 1,000 litter pickers by September 2026, as proposed earlier. He said that intensive and deep road cleaning, and dust suppression remain among the most effective interventions for reducing particulate pollution in urban areas.

On public transport and electric mobility, Shri Yadav emphasized the need for procurement of more electric buses and urged the Delhi Government to bridge the gap through a phase-wise action plan, by October 2026. He also emphasized the need for rapid augmentation of EV public charging infrastructure across the city. Stressing the importance of regional coordination, the Minister said that EV adoption across the wider NCR region must also be incentivized.

The Minister stressed the need for strengthening Delhi’s metro network and improving multi-modal last-mile connectivity to bridge demand-supply gap, hence encourage greater public transport usage and reduce vehicular emissions. He urged that last-mile connectivity initiatives should be fully integrated with the broader city transport plan to ensure seamless and convenient mobility for commuters.

Reviewing measures related to End-of-Life (EoL) vehicles, Shri Yadav asked authorities to expedite issuance of No Objection Certificates (NOC) for transfer of EoL vehicles outside the NCR region. He also requested that Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras be installed at all border entry points by September 2026 to strengthen monitoring and enforcement. Shri Yadav also laid stress on augmenting the capacity for testing fitness of commercial vehicles in Delhi.