Delhi on life support as PMO flags 37% toxic vehicles and orders urgent shift to EVs

As Delhi’s air quality plunged into the “very poor” and later “severe” category, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has issued its sharpest intervention this season, flagging what it called a “disproportionate and dangerous” vehicular load in the National Capital Region.

At a high-level review meeting chaired by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister on October 24, the government directed all NCR states and union territories to dramatically accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, expand charging infrastructure, and tighten enforcement using technology-backed surveillance.

The red flag was hard to ignore: out of 2.97 crore vehicles registered in the National Capital Region, 1.57 crore are concentrated in Delhi — a city occupying just 2.7% of the region’s land. Even more alarming, 37% of NCR’s vehicle fleet still runs on outdated BS-I to BS-III emission norms, worsening toxic winter smog as temperatures drop and wind speeds slow.

The task force meeting — attended by secretaries from eight central ministries and chief secretaries of Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh — came just as Delhi imposed Stage 2 of GRAP and its Air Quality Index surged past 350. Within weeks, a mix of vehicular emissions and stubble smoke pushed the city’s AQI into the “severe” zone between November 11 and 13.

Transportation in the crosshairs

With the Commission for Air Quality Management identifying transport pollution as the single biggest contributor, the PMO instructed NCR states to deploy ANPR, RFID and ITMS systems to crack down on non-compliant vehicles and enforce emission norms in real time.

The numbers underline the urgency:

Officials acknowledged that EV adoption remains “far from adequate”, despite incentive schemes, and called for revised policies with clear timelines across two-wheelers, cars, buses and commercial fleets. NCR states were also asked to fast-track cab and bike aggregator policies and create a unified digital monitoring portal.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been tasked with conducting a scientific study on pollution from fossil-fuel vehicles, to feed into new regulation.

Pollution data paints a grim picture

Between October 15 and November 25, the National Capital Region logged average PM10 levels of 295 µg/m³ and PM2.5 levels of 171 µg/m³ — 11 times and 7 times higher than WHO safety limits, respectively.

This season, the transport sector has contributed 14–20% of Delhi’s pollution, according to the Decision Support System of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, while the Centre for Science and Environment estimates that half of winter particulate pollution can originate from vehicles alone.

The focus on mobility is also reinforced by declining farm fire counts, now at a five-year low — 27,720 incidents detected across five northern states between September 15 and November 24, far below the 85,915 fires recorded in 2021.

The road ahead

The Central government's directive signals a shift from short-term emergency responses to structural overhauls in mobility and enforcement. But the gulf between EV targets and ground realities is stark — and time is running out.

Delhi and its neighbouring states now face the same question hanging in the city’s smog-filled winter air:

Will this be the season the NCR finally moves from firefighting to transformation — or will the region stay trapped in a self-made pollution cycle?