Delhi's winter pollution notification

The winter calendar

What Delhi's 23 June 2026 notification says

A calendar needs a public account of delivery

The Delhi Government has set recurring dates for vehicle, office, construction and open-burning measures. The public should be able to see which authorities implemented each measure, what exemptions they allowed and what the results show. A notified requirement is not evidence that it was carried out or that pollution fell.

Read the different dates separately

The general window is 1 November to 28 February each year, or as specified, or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Some clauses expressly use different dates or a year-round requirement. More stringent GRAP measures, when invoked by the Commission for Air Quality Management, take priority. [1, pp. 9, 11]

Fuel and vehicles

Fuel: the text requires valid Pollution Under Control Certificates for fuel dispensing throughout the year, with physical or electronic verification. Outside-Delhi vehicles: the 1 November to 31 January restriction covers vehicles registered outside Delhi that are below BS-VI. CNG and electric vehicles, emergency and sovereign-duty vehicles, and categories specifically exempted by the Environment Department are excepted. It is not a blanket ban on every vehicle from outside Delhi. [1, p. 9]

Parking and office hours

From 1 November to 28 February the text doubles charges at authorised parking sites, with DMRC-owned and managed parking exempt. It specifies office hours of 8:30 am to 5:00 pm for MCD and 10:00 am to 6:30 pm for GNCTD offices. [1, p. 9]

The 50% office rule has qualifications

From 1 November to 31 January government and private offices are to operate with no more than 50% of staff physically present, with the remainder working from home. Government administrative secretaries and heads of departments attend regularly and may call staff to maintain essential or emergency services. The text exempts essential and emergency services, including healthcare, fire, prisons, public transport, utilities, sanitation, disaster management and environmental enforcement. Further essential-service determinations are reserved to the Environment Department. [1, pp. 9-10]

Dust, buildings and burning

Keep the scope and exceptions visible

Construction has two different windows

1 November to 31 January: the text prohibits dust-generating demolition and outdoor civil construction, except essential public infrastructure. Finishing, plumbing and electrical work within a site may continue under construction-waste and dust-control requirements. Storage or dumping of construction material outside the site is prohibited. 10 December to 20 January: a wider construction-and-demolition ban applies, subject to its stated exception for urgent government projects affecting public convenience and emergency conditions. [1, p. 10]

Construction-material vehicles

The 10 December to 20 January entry restriction covers vehicles carrying construction materials into Delhi. The listed exceptions cover national-importance or strategic projects, essential public infrastructure and utilities, emergency work and categories specifically exempted by the Environment Department. These exceptions need to be read with the separate construction provisions; they are not evidence of permission for every project. [1, p. 10]

Buildings and mist systems

The clause covers commercial high-rise buildings with built-up area exceeding 3,000 square metres and height G+5 or above. It calls for anti-smog guns or mist systems within the premises, installation by 15 August, and operation outside the 1 May to 15 September exclusion. Mist systems are also specified for under-construction sites with plot area exceeding 1,000 square metres. Detailed equipment conditions are in the annexures. [1, pp. 10, 12-13]

Open burning: responsibility includes clean heating

RWAs, institutions, establishments and other entities deploying personnel are made responsible for prevention of open burning in premises or areas under their control. The text calls for appropriate heating arrangements using electricity or approved clean fuels where required, rather than leaving workers to burn waste or biomass. It assigns dissemination, vigilance, incident reporting and response duties to the Revenue Department, DPCC, local bodies and the concerned land-owning or enforcement agencies. [1, p. 11]

Equipment specifications are not an effectiveness study

Annexure 1 includes treated water and an integral air-quality monitor among its requirements. The notification alone does not establish how much these systems change neighbourhood or city-wide particulate concentrations. This guide makes no numerical reduction or health-benefit estimate from the prescribed equipment. [1, p. 12; interpretation]

Make delivery measurable

An accountability agenda, separate from the legal text

Publish the implementation record

The following are requests from this publication, not additional duties asserted to appear in the notification. Agencies should release a dated record of the locations covered, inspections, compliance findings, exemptions, corrective action and follow-up. A list of purchases or enforcement visits alone cannot establish cleaner air.

Vehicle and office measures

Publish fuel-verification coverage and failed checks; the basis for vehicle exemptions; parking-rate orders and the DMRC exception; and office implementation arrangements that preserve essential services. Distinguish an instruction issued from compliance verified. Report the coverage of each record so that raw counts are not mistaken for a compliance rate.

Dust and open burning

Publish the building and construction-site register, inspection dates, functioning equipment and maintenance records, water use, complaints and remedial action. For open burning, record the reported incident, responding agency, response time and resolution, alongside the provision of clean heating where needed. Public records should protect personal information.

Assess outcomes without inventing causation

An air-quality evaluation needs measured concentrations, station and time coverage, the period compared, meteorology and other relevant changes, and uncertainty. A fall in pollution after a measure starts does not by itself establish that the measure caused the fall. An equipment count or a winter calendar cannot substitute for that evaluation.

Source, publication and limits

[1] GNCTD, Department of Environment and Forests, notification F. No. 10(39)/ENV/2021, dated 23 June 2026; Delhi Gazette, Part IV, No. 160, Gazette ID SG-DL-E-01072026-273956, published 1 July 2026. English operative text: PDF pages 9-11; annexures: pages 12-13. The official download was checked on 18 October 2026 against the saved 13-page copy; normalized text agrees on every page.

Read this as a dated guide

This publication explains the cited notification. It does not consolidate later amendments, exemptions, court orders or day-specific GRAP directions, certify present compliance, or reproduce the older policy brief's quantitative claims. Those later instruments must be checked for a particular date or case. The complete notification, including its exceptions and annexures, controls the reading of each provision.