After brief escape, Delhi AQI back to ‘severe’ for 4th day

NEWDELHI: Till about 4pm on Saturday, strong winds helped Delhi’s air quality improve to “very poor” from the “severe” category it had been suffering for the last three days, albeit for a short while.

However, with waning wind speed towards the evening, realtime pollution levels had shot up to at least 15 times the safe limit at some stations.

Delhi’s 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) as recorded by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) at 4pm on Saturday, was 399 in the “very poor” category. At 10.30pm though, this was 411. On Friday, AQI was 484, the worst since November 2017, when it was 486.

The air quality, however, started improving from around 7 pm at most of the city’s monitoring stations after the winds picked up. “The wind speed was almost zero in the morning hours. But it picked up in the afternoon and by 5.30pm it had reached 15km/hour. By 8.30pm the speed had again dropped to around 6kmph. As the wind speed dropped, pollutants again started accumulating,” said a senior official of the India Meteorological department (IMD).

As per CPCB, the realtime concentration of PM 2.5 levels – the prominent pollutant in Delhi’s air — between 6pm and 7pm in Najafgarh was 907ug/m3, the highest among all 38 monitoring stations in Delhi. This was despite Najafgarh being a large, open green area. The value, however, came down to 868 by 8pm. The PM2.5 safe limit is 60ug/m3.

Similarly, PM 2.5 levels at IGI Airport and Aurobindo Marg stations,

which usually remain relatively cleaner than other parts of the city, was 786ug/m3 and 759ug/m3, respectively in the evening.

DPCC: CLEAN UP AT ITO-PRAGATI MAIDAN

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) inspected the area around the Arun Jaitely Cricket Stadium near ITO where a T20 cricket match between India and Bangladesh is scheduled for Sunday. It directed the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, PWD and traffic police to intensify action at ITO. Also, patrol teams have also been deployed to identify illegal garbage burning and dumping of construction debris.