Dense fog engulfs Delhi, air quality remains 'very poor'

New Delhi: A thick blanket of fog enveloped Delhi on Saturday morning, with the visibility dropping to 50 metres at Safdarjung and 250 metres at Palam at 8.30 am, MeT officials said.

The city recorded a minimum temperature of 10.8 degrees Celsius, they said.

The air quality in the national Capital was recorded in the "very poor" category. The Air Quality Index (AQI) was 331 at 9 am, real-time data of the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) showed.

Relative humidity was 100 per cent at 8.30 am, they said, adding that the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 27 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, 12 passengers of a private bus were injured after half-a-dozen vehicles collided with each other on Yamuna Expressway on Saturday morning due to low visibility. Cops said no casualties have been reported. The injured, who mostly escaped with minor injuries, were admitted to the hospital.

According to a senior police officer, the pile-up occurred at around 7 am when a private bus, travelling from Lucknow to Delhi, crashed into a broken truck parked on the left side of the Expressway.

"A passer-by made the call and the highway police was alerted. The incident took place under Dankaur police station area, around 11 kilometres from zero point. As there was dense fog on Saturday morning at the E-Way, the bus driver failed to notice the truck and rammed into it, following which three other cars and a bus crashed into one another causing a pile-up," said a cop from Dankaur police station.

The officer further added that no complaint has been received into the matter so far while most of those who got injured were discharged after first aid. "The injured were admitted to two different hospitals in the locality. So far, no complaint has been received and traffic was soon cleared with the broken down vehicles being towed away with the help of cranes," the officer added.