Diwali 2018: Diwali is finally here and people across India are all set to celebrate the festival of lights. However, in the view of the poor quality of air across the country, this year there are some restrictions on the bursting of crackers. According to the Supreme Court's order, the time period to burst crackers this year has been defined by the court. This year, the apex court has opened a small window of two hours for bursting crackers on Diwali. Besides, the court has permitted the sale and manufacture of only low emission "green" firecrackers countrywide.


From partially banning fireworks to set the time limit on the bursting of crackers, the court has issued guidelines on almost every aspect of the festival. Here are the timings for bursting firecrackers in key cities and states:

New Delhi: 8 pm to 10 pm
Amritsar, Punjab: 8 pm to 10 pm
Goa: 8 pm to 10 pm
Bengaluru, Karnataka: 8 pm to 10 pm
Kolkata, West Bengal: 8 pm to 10 pm
Mumbai, Maharashtra: 8 pm to 10 pm
Chennai, Tamil Nadu: 6 am to 7 am and 7 pm to 8 pm
Hyderabad, Telangana: 8 am to 10 pm

Meanwhile, air pollution in the national capital is deteriorating day by day. Delhi's air quality is expected to even go worse to 'severe plus emergency' category after Diwali and the air quality will be bad on November 8 even if partial toxic crackers are burned compared to last year, the Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) said.

"Even if 50 per cent of the total load of toxic fire crackers as compared to Diwali-2017 is added, the prevailing weather conditions will aggravate the high smoke level and make air quality to persist in severe range for at least two day on November 8 and November 9," SAFAR said in a report.