Air quality remained “very poor” across Delhi on Saturday as a dense fog drastically reduced visibility. The AQI jumped marginally higher to 368 despite the re-imposition of GRAP 3 curbs across the national capital region a day earlier. Meanwhile the Commission for Air Quality Management has recommended a drastic expansion of Delhi Metro services in order to reduce vehicular emissions — urging the city to take a cue from Beijing.
According to details gleaned by The Indian Express, CAQM has suggested more than doubling the metro network to encourage the use of public transport. The Chinese capital city — which has a Metro network with operation length of approximately 900 km — was reportedly cited as an example.
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What is the current Metro situation in Delhi?
The metro network in Delhi is currently spread out across 462.7 km and forays into neighbouring cities. Out of the total length, 352.16 km is operational and construction remains underway for the remaining 110.6 km. The Delhi Metro has a total of 12 lines and 289 stations across the NCR. Meanwhile Beijing hosts a 879 km-long metro network with 27 lines and 420 stations.
“It is a very ambitious proposal. The first question before going ahead with the suggestions will be — does Delhi have enough space to expand the network to 900 km? The city already has a Metro network of close to 500 km. Even after the completion of Phase IV and under Phase V-A and V-B, it can be expanded up to 600 km,” a Delhi Metro official told Indian Express.
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GRAP 3 reimposed amid ‘very poor’ AQI
A nine-point action plan was imposed with immediate effect on Friday as Stage-III of the extant Graded Action Response Plan came into effect across the entire NCR. It includes various steps to be implemented or ensured by different agencies. Visibility has also been affected as cold wave conditions continued to prevail in the national capital and dense fog enveloped large parts of the city. The dense fog around the airport area has led to multiple flight delays this week.
The GRAP sub-committee of CAQM had recently convened a meeting to discuss prevailing air pollution woes across NCR. According to an official release, the Sub-Committee observed that the AQI in Delhi has shown an increasing trend. Forecasts by IMD and IITM further indicate that air quality is likely to deteriorate further and may enter the ‘severe’ category in the coming days due to unfavourable meteorological conditions and slow, variable wind speeds.
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