A damning report has revealed a severe underutilisation of funds meant to combat air pollution in two of India's most polluted cities. According to a study by the Foundation for Responsive Governance (ResGov), Delhi and Noida have spent less than a third of the money allocated to them under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). This comes as both cities continue to grapple with hazardous air quality levels, frequently topping pollution charts in the National Capital Region.
Financial Shortfall and Missed Opportunities
The study, titled 'Financing Clean Air: What city-level data shows', analysed NCAP data from the financial years 2020-21 to 2025-26. It found a troubling pattern of delayed fund disbursal, low spending, and a significant mismatch between identified pollution sources and where the money was actually used.
For Delhi, the situation is particularly stark. The capital was approved Rs 113 crore under NCAP during the six-year period. However, this sum represents only 54% of the Rs 209 crore it could have received if it had met performance-linked criteria and allocation ratios for reducing air pollution. Of the approved amount, Rs 81 crore (72%) had been released by December 23, 2025. Yet, the utilisation was a meagre Rs 14 crore, or just 12% of the approved allocations.
The spending, handled by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), was exclusively directed at controlling road dust and construction and demolition waste. The report notes that fund utilisation peaked in 2022-23 at 22% of available funds, then plummeted to 2% in 2024-25, with no recorded spending in 2025-26 at the time of the study.
Noida's Parallel Struggle with Fund Utilisation
The satellite city of Noida, part of the polluted NCR belt, fared only marginally better. It was allocated Rs 127 crore under NCAP between 2020-21 and 2025-26. As of January 4, 2026, Rs 56 crore (44%) had been released, and approximately Rs 30 crore (24% of total allocations) had been utilised.
For several years, spending was minimal. From 2020-21 to 2024-25, only Rs 3 crore was spent, entirely on road dust mitigation measures like water sprinklers, mechanised sweepers, and anti-smog guns. Utilisation saw an increase only in the 2025-26 financial year, though detailed breakdowns of this later spending were not publicly available.
This narrow focus on dust control persists despite the city's own air action plan identifying a broader range of major pollution sources, including vehicles, construction, industries, and garbage burning.
Persistent Pollution Amidst Funding Lapses
The poor financial management coincides with persistently dangerous air quality. In Delhi, while PM10 levels saw a slight decline between 2017-18 and 2024-25, the period from 2019-20 to 2024-25 actually witnessed an increase from 192 µg/m³ to 213 µg/m³. These levels consistently exceed NCAP's annual targets, the national standard of 60 µg/m³, and the World Health Organisation's stringent guideline of 15 µg/m³.
Noida showed a 32% decline in PM10 between 2017-18 and 2024-25, falling from 229 µg/m³ to 155 µg/m³. Despite this improvement, the city failed to meet its annual PM10 targets from 2021-22 to 2024-25, and pollution remains far above safe limits.
The report also highlights a critical planning flaw in Delhi. The city's clean air actions continue to rely on a source apportionment study from 2018, based on 2016-17 data. A more recent real-time study submitted in 2023 has not been formally approved, forcing authorities to plan with outdated information.
Administrative bottlenecks have further crippled progress. In Delhi, the non-constitution of the MCD standing committee was cited as a key reason for delays, as it slowed down the tendering process essential for executing projects.
The findings of the ResGov study paint a grim picture of systemic failure. As administrative delays, low utilisation, and misaligned spending priorities plague the NCAP, the residents of Delhi and Noida continue to breathe air that poses a severe health risk, with allocated funds failing to translate into meaningful action on the ground.
