In the last five years, despite a fall PM 2.5 levels by around 5.9%, Delhi is still far from achieving targets under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and has remained the most polluted out of a list of 92 cities in the country in 2023.

The data is part of a five-year NCAP report prepared by Climate Trends and Respirer Living Sciences using data from the network of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations in the country, as reported by IndianExpress.

The report also pointed to Union government data that said only 28% or Rs 10.77 crore of the Rs 38.21 crore disbursed to the city by the Union government under NCAP has been utilised. The Delhi government did not respond to questions with regard to the expenditure.

Delhi's annual average PM 2.5 concentration of 102 µg/m3 in 2023, was the highest on a list of 92 cities, including state capitals like Mumbai, Bhopal, Lucknow, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru, for which sufficient air quality monitoring data was available, followed by Patna.

On this list, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, and Meerut were the other NCR towns and cities that featured in the top 10 list in terms of PM 2.5 levels in 2023. The national capital saw more polluted air in 2023 compared to 2022 when the annual average PM 2.5 level was 99.5 µg/m3. This is, however, 5.9% lower than the average of 108.4 µg/m3 recorded in 2019.

Delhi was the second most polluted (after Patna) out of 93 cities for which sufficient data was available in 2023 in terms of PM10 levels. The report noted that 'there is still much ground to cover to meet the 40% reduction target set by the National Clean Air Programme for 2026'.

NCAP, which was launched in 2019 to deal with air pollution in the country, had an initial target of bringing particulate matter levels down by 20% to 30% by 2024.

Funds under NCAP have been released to 131 'non-attainment' cities (cities exceeding national air quality standards for five years) in the country from the 2019-20 financial year onwards.