Days after drizzle, air quality drops to 'very poor'

NEW DELHI: Air quality in Delhi-NCR on Wednesday morning again dropped to 'very poor', after staying in the 'poor' category on Monday, in the wake of moderate rain.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), air quality at 11 of the 21 monitoring stations across NCR was 'very poor', as against only four regions on Tuesday night.

In Delhi, the concentration of major pollutant PM2.5 was 133 units at 15 active monitoring stations, and 131 units at 21 stations across NCR, considered 'very poor'.

On Wednesday, the number of areas exposed to toxic air jumped from four (Tuesday night) to 11 towards Wednesday noon.

The most-polluted areas included Anand Vihar in east Delhi, Delhi Technical University in north Delhi, ITO, Mandir Marg and Lodhi Road in central Delhi, Siri Fort and RK Puram in south Delhi, Sector-125 in Noida and Vasundhara in Ghaziabad.

PM2.5 levels in these areas ranged between 123 and 194 units — five to eight times the permissible limit.

According to SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research), the overall air quality index across 10 stations in the NCR was 252 at noon, as compared with 219 at 4 pm on Tuesday after 7.8 mm rainfall.

As per the India Meteorological Department, on account of high moisture, Delhi-NCR has no chance of rains on Thursday. "Currently, Delhi is experiencing north-westerly winds with low speeds of 5 to 10 kmph," an IMD official said.