New Delhi (CNN) It was early on Tuesday morning when residents in the Indian capital of Delhi first began to notice the thick white haze that had descended across the city.

Initially viewed as a mild irritant, by mid-week its debilitating effects were evident to all, as the city struggled to adapt to the new eerie, martian-like conditions brought about by the pollution.

With visibility severely reduced, trains have been canceled, planes delayed and cars have piled into each other, with multiple traffic accidents reported across the city.

The sense that this is now a city under siege has been enhanced by the unusually far-reaching actions of the Delhi government

The Delhi government has suspended all civic construction projects as part of several emergency measures intended to help tackle the pollution crisis.

On Tuesday afternoon, city chiefs closed all public and private schools, requesting instead that the city's tens of thousands of school-aged children remain indoors; on Wednesday, they banned incoming trucks and halted civil construction projects; while on Thursday, they announced new plans to begin implementing a partial ban on private car use as of next week.

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