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Delhi Bans Civil Construction Works, Entry Of Trucks Into The City

A decision on whether or not to implement the odd-even car-rationing scheme will be taken tomorrow.

Vehicles plying at a road in smog, in New Delhi on Wednesday morning. (Photographer: Kamal Kishore/PTI)
Vehicles plying at a road in smog, in New Delhi on Wednesday morning. (Photographer: Kamal Kishore/PTI)

Authorities in Delhi today ordered an immediate halt on civil construction works and banned the entry of trucks, except those carrying essential commodities, into the city as the EPCA announced that pollution levels have hit ‘severe plus’.

The decisions were approved by Lt Governor Anil Baijal in a meeting which was also attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority member Sunita Narain among a host of senior officials.

A decision on whether or not to implement the odd-even car-rationing scheme will be taken tomorrow, sources present in the meeting said.

During the meeting, the Supreme Court-appointed EPCA, which is empowered to enforce the Graded Response Action Plan, said it has decided to ramp up the plan to ‘severe plus’ in view of the prevailing smog.

Yesterday, the EPCA had directed authorities to implement measures under the GRAP’s ‘severe’ category, including hiking parking fees and introducing differential pricing in public transport.