54 trains delayed as air quality drops to 'very poor'

NEW DELHI: As many as 54 trains were delayed as shallow fog engulfed the national capital on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, the air quality of Delhi reached 380 which is “very poor” and just 20 unit down from the “severe” air quality, officials of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said.

Most of the monitoring stations of Delhi noted more than 400 air quality.

On Wednesday around 3 pm, the major pollutant PM2.5 - or particle in the air with the diameter less than 2.5mm was at “severe plus or emergency” level across 11 different locations in the National Capital Region, out of 23 active stations.

The PM2.5 was ranged between 419 and 500 units -16 to 20 times high than the international safe range.

“What we see in Delhi today is smog and not fog. Delhi will see more smog in the coming days and air quality will deteriorate further,” an official warned.

Meanwhile, at 4 p.m. the regions with “severe or severe plus” air quality included Anand Vihar (PM2.5 500 units) in east Delhi, Shadipur (458 units) and Punjabi Bagh (428) in west Delhi, ITO (453) and Lodhi Road (419) in central Delhi, Siri Fort (443) and RK Puram (395) in south Delhi, Delhi Technical University (468) in north Delhi, and Noida’s Sector 125 (319) and Ghaziabad’s Vasundhra (440).

The minimum temperature was recorded at 9.4 degrees Celsius.