This is because October, November and December, the months when air pollution goes into the "emergency" zone have gone by. Air quality analysts say there is a slim chance of "emergency" days in May, which sees another spike in pollution levels but not after that.

But since the next round of the odd-even exercise, whenever it happens, will also be implemented in all NCR cities, the UP and Haryana governments have their task cut out to put into place measures to ensure people living in Gurgaaon, Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad have adequate public transport options. Except Noida, which has a series of Metro lines coming up, all the other cities fare poorly on this count.

NCR cities will have to gear up to enforce a three- to four-times hike in parking fee and stop use of diesel generator sets.

According to the graded action plan, a pollution "emergency" is when PM 2.5 levels cross 300 micrograms per cubic metres and PM 10 levels cross 500 micrograms per cubic metres, and these levels persist for 48 hours. According to the action plan document submitted by Central Pollution Control Board to the Supreme Court, 3% of days in October 2015 were in the "emergency" zone, 53% in November, 32% in December and 45% in January 2016. Between October 2016 and January 13, 2017 only 8% of the days were in the "emergency" zone.

The task force will be headed by CPCB while IMD will carry out forecasting and alert the task force. Since there is hardly any real-time air quality monitoring infrastructure in NCR except for one station each in Faridabad, Gurgaon and Noida, the PM 2.5 averages recorded in Delhi will act as proxy for entire NCR.

"I don't think we will see odd-even soon because temperatures are likely to go up and chances of winter inversion will reduce. There are three pollution peaks—November, December and May. Such high levels don't persist for 48 hours usually," said a scientist from DPCC. Other officials said there can be some "emergency" end of January but unlikely after that.