(MENAFN- Live Mint) As Delhi continues to reel from worsening air pollution, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has now advised private institutions to prioritise work-from-home.

This comes after AQI levels in several parts of the city breached the 400-mark, making Delhi enter the 'red zone' of air pollution levels.

She has also changed the working hours of Delhi government and Delhi Municipal Corporation offices in view of the rising air pollution levels in the city.

The Chief Minister's Office has issued a press release which says that this decision has been taken as a precautionary measure to prevent rising pollution, ensuring that pressure on the roads due to a large number of vehicles plying at once is eased.

The decision was taken during a meeting with senior officials of the Environment Department. The government came to the decision that starting 15 November 2025 to 15 February 2025, office timings of the Delhi government and the MCD will be changed in phases.

This has been done because in winter seasons, the level of pollutants in the national capital, like PM 2.5 and PM 10, rise far above normal levels, thus deteriorating the air quality and in turn impacting public health.

How have Delhi govt, MCD office timings changed?

Under the proposed timings in the meeting, the new winter timings will see Delhi government offices functional from 10:00 am to 6:30 am instead of the current 9:30 am to 6:00 pm timings.

The MCD offices, on the other hand, will be functioning from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm instead of the current 9:00 am to 5:30 pm timings.

Air quality worsens, stubble burning major factor

The air quality in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) has been degrading since Diwali, having remained in the 'poor and 'very poor' categories, and finally dropping to the 'hazardous' territory with AQI of 400 in some parts of the city.

The 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city, which is reported at 4 pm everyday, was reported to be 361 on Saturday.

Among the monitoring stations that have reported 400+ AQI are 404 at Alipur, 402 at ITO, 406 at Nehru Nagar, 411 at Vivek Vihar, 420 at Wazirpur, and 418 at Burari, as per the Sameer app's data provided by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Noida reported an AQI of 354, Greater Noida of 336, and Ghaziabad of 339, as per the CPCB.

On Friday Delhi had ranked as the most polluted city in the country, with an AQI of 322.

Stubble burning has been the major cause behind the rising air pollution in the capital. The Decision Support System (DSS) for air quality forecasting has reported that 30 per cent of Delhi's pollution was because of stubble burning while 15% was from the transport sector.

As per satellite data, Punjab saw 100 incidents of stubble burning on Friday, with Haryana witnessing 18 and Uttar Pradesh seeing 164.

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