As construction resumes, air quality dips to 'severe'

New Delhi: As construction activities resumed in the National Capital Region and all trucks were allowed back into Delhi from Tuesday, the Capital's air quality worsened to the "severe" category with the 24-hour average AQI for the city reaching 402 with several of the 33 stations in Delhi recording "severe" air throughout the day.

The Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR and Adjoining Areas, had on Monday, lifted the restriction on entry of trucks and construction and demolition activities, asking state administrations to ramp up compliance drives.

The Commission had reasoned that the restrictions were lifted considering that favourable wind conditions had reduced pollution in the last week and that IMD had forecast similar conditions ahead.

"The India Meteorological Department's forecast indicates the continuation of the favourable trend of wind speed and climatic conditions to facilitate dispersion of pollutants from the region," it had said in its order.

However, on Tuesday, weather experts said conditions will be such that the air is expected to remain within the "very poor" or "severe" category till December 27.

The air quality in neighbouring Faridabad (395), Ghaziabad (392), Greater Noida (372), Gurugram (314) and Noida (382) was recorded in the 'very poor' category.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecast agency SAFAR said low wind speed and very low temperature are leading to such conditions.

Mahesh Palawat, vice-president (Meteorology and Climate Change) at Skymet Weather, said the slowing down of winds due to a western disturbance affecting northwest India and low temperature has led to the accumulation of pollutants.

The wind speed will remain low in the coming days due to two back-to-back western disturbances. Light rain is likely in the plains in north India between December 27 and December 29 which may improve the air quality a bit, he said.

Significantly, while GRAP measures were in place just as previous years, the Supreme Court's involvement this year had led to authorities imposing restrictions for a longer period. Just last week, the Commission had allowed the reopening of schools and educational institutes amid growing concerns that continuous shutdowns were affecting the quality of education.

As per the instructions as of Tuesday evening, schools for classes 5 and below are expected to reopen for physical classes from December 27.