Delhi gets year’s cleanest air

Rainfall in the early hours of Saturday and then towards afternoon kept the city cool, with below-normal temperatures

Delhi breathed its best air this year on Saturday — thanks to a combination of overnight rain across the city and lower vehicular emissions owing to restriction on movement due to the G20 Summit.

Despite being the cleanest day of the year, Saturday was not a “good” air day. (PTI)

Water sprinklers deployed to check pollution levels during the international event also likely helped, claimed civic officials, in bringing the air quality index (AQI) to 54. This was also a significant improvement over Friday’s reading of 83.

Prior to Saturday, July 29 saw the lowest AQI this year at 59, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Rainfall in the early hours of Saturday and then towards afternoon kept the city cool, with below-normal temperatures.

The maximum temperature stood at 32°C and the minimum at 23.2°C — one and two degrees below normal respectively. The city recorded 9.7mm rainfall in 24 hours till 8.30am on Saturday, and another 1.6mm till 5.30pm, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Light rain is predicted for the next two days as well. “The maximum and minimum temperatures will remain around 34°C and 23°C,” said an IMD official.

To be sure, despite being the cleanest day of the year, Saturday was not a “good” air day.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered “good”, between 51-100 “satisfactory”, 101-200 “moderate”, 201-300 “poor”, 301-400 “very poor”, and between 401 and 500 “severe”.

On Saturday, the National Capital Region recorded cleaner air as well. Ghaziabad’s AQI was the lowest at 40; it was 85 in Gurugram; 76 in Greater Noida; 88 in Faridabad; and 64 in Noida.

Meanwhile, officials from the New Delhi Municipal Corporation said various measures undertook by them to keep pollution in control led to an “AQI less than 100 in last five days”.

MCD officials said a few cases of waterlogging were reported in Rangpuri chowk, Inderpuri and West Patel Nagar, along with two cases of trees falling in Sarai Kale Khan and Janakpuri.

In the morning, Delhi traffic police also issued an advisory that traffic was affected on Rohtak Road in the Tikri Border-Mundka carriageway due to waterlogging.

Mahesh Palawat, director at Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency, said various factors, including strong wind speed, rain, and reduced vehicular emissions, played a role in the improvement of air quality.

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