India has adopted severe traffic restrictions for millions of residents in the capital, New Delhi, in an effort to tackle air pollution that has already passed the safe limits of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The city’s residents have to find alternative ways to get to work from January 1, as part of the new measures aimed at reducing smog levels.

The government announced the plan after a court ordered authorities to find a solution to clean up the world's most polluted capital.

The restrictions that ban private cars from the roads will run for an initial two-week trial period. Critics, however, believe that the goal to reduce pollution would hardly be achieved in a city, where traffic rules are already routinely flouted.

"The biggest challenge is to make people realize that this fight against pollution is for them, for their health, for their own good," AFP quoted the city's Transport Minister Gopal Rai as saying on Monday.

Traffic police and 10,000 volunteers will monitor cars at checkpoints across the city. Violators will be fined 2,000 rupees (USD 30).

As an alternative, the government has hired around 3,000 private buses to provide shuttle services into the city from residential areas.

Schools have been also ordered to remain closed until the two-week trial period ends on January 15, so that their buses can be pressed into action.

New Delhi has become the most polluted of 1,600 cities around the world, according to the WHO.

The capital’s air quality has dropped dramatically in winter, because farmers in neighboring states burn crop stubble and poor residents use fire to keep warm. Winter cold weather traps pollutants in the atmosphere.