Authorities in India’s capital and surrounding areas handed out fines to the owners of thousands of vehicles and construction sites for infringing pollution rules, in a bid to counter a slump in air quality during the last three weeks.
New Delhi is the world’s most polluted major city, Swiss group IQAir said in its live rankings. Almost 60,000 vehicles and more than 7,500 building sites were fined, officials said, as the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) rated Monday’s conditions ‘very poor’, with a score of 373 on its index that rates levels from zero to 50 as ‘good’.

As many as 54,000 of the vehicles lacked a pollution under control (PUC) certificate, showing permissible levels of emissions, the Commission for Air Quality Management said, adding that almost 3,900 more were impounded as ‘overaged’.