It also said it was considering cloud seeding to produce rain, a technique Beijing used to clear the air before the 2008 Olympic Games.
Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, said the city faced an "emergency situation".
"These temporary emergency measures are critical for bringing down the peak polution levels," she said.
"Of course this cannot be permanent you cannot keep people indoors forever," she added
A 2014 World Health Organisation survey of more than 1500 cities ranked Delhi as the most polluted.
He may reintroduce car rationing in the city after a successful two week trial earlier this year.
But the Delhi government is powerless to stop the mass burning of fields in the nearby states of Haryana and Punjab.
Sunita Narain, head of the CSE to force the government to act, called it a "public health emergency".
"The situation is very bad. The poisonous air is very harmful for all of us," she said.