CM orders staggered timings for govt. offices to reduce congestion

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Friday announced staggered working hours for Delhi government and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) employees to reduce peak-hour traffic congestion as the city battles air pollution.

According to an official statement, the Delhi government offices will operate from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and the MCD offices from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. from November 15 to February 15.

Currently, Delhi government offices operate from 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m., while MCD offices run from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. “As there is only a 30-minute gap between these timings, the city experiences heavy traffic congestion both in the morning and evening, worsening the air pollution,” the CMO said in a statement.

Staggering office timings is one of the measures recommended by the Commission for Air Quality Management over the past years to reduce air pollution.

Meanwhile, the air quality in the Capital continued to be ‘very poor’ with an average air quality index (AQI) of 322 at 4 p.m., up from 311 a day earlier, as per the Central Pollution Control Board’s daily official bulletin.

The air quality is likely to remain ‘very poor’, with a forecast of a sharp rise in contributions from stubble burning. The contribution of stubble burning to PM2.5, a chief pollutant, in Delhi on Friday was 8.6%, according to the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences data. It is likely to rise to 30.91% on Saturday and 31.24% on Sunday.