With Delhi blanketed by a thick layer of toxic haze air pollution reached the near-maximum level possible in the city on Friday with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 470.

As air quality in several parts of Delhi-NCR plunged to the ‘severe’ category on Friday morning, people said they experienced breathing problems and irritation in the eye among others.

Meanwhile, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai has made an appeal to the residents to use public transport, including metro and buses, to curb pollution due to vehicles.

Hospitals in the Delhi-NCR region reported a dramatic rise in cases of eye irritation, prolonged coughing, and throat infection after the air quality in the region worsened with a slip to the ‘severe’ zone in several parts.

There was a thick haze blanketing the skyline of the national capital and adjoining areas as the AQI breached the 400 mark at multiple locations.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Thursday invoked the third stage of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) as air quality deteriorated in the national capital. It involved a complete halt on construction and demolition work except for essential government projects, mining, and stone crushing; imposing strict restrictions on plying of BS III petrol and BS IV diesel LMVs (4 wheelers) in Delhi and in the districts of Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Gautam Budh Nagar.

The CAQM issued directions to immediately ban construction activities in the entire National Capital Region (NCR) except for essential government projects.

The CAQM also urged the state governments in the NCR and GNCTD to contemplate discontinuing physical classes in schools for children up to Class V and conducting classes in an online mode.

As the air quality in the national capital fell into the “severe” category, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced the closure of all government and private primary schools in the city for the next two days starting November 3.

In a post on X, the chief minister said, “In light of the rising pollution levels, all govt and private primary schools in Delhi will remain closed for the next 2 days.”

Schools were closed and non-essential construction was banned as the air quality index in the city reached almost 500-100 times the limit deemed to be healthy by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In view of the implementation of the GRAP-III stage to combat pollution in Delhi, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) added 20 extra trips across its network starting November 3. It is already running 40 additional train trips on weekdays (Monday-Friday) from October 25 onwards when the GRAP-II stage came into force.

From today, the DMRC is running a total of 60 additional trips as part of its measures taken under GRAP to encourage more and more people to use public transport in Delhi-NCR.

The AQI in Delhi was recorded at 402 at 5 pm on Thursday.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, pollution levels in Delhi in October were at their worst since 2020.