Delhi’s air quality continues in ‘severe’ category

The air quality in Delhi-NCR is likely to remain in ‘severe’ to ‘poor’ category on Saturday, as per the early air quality warning system

Delhi’s air quality continued in the ‘severe’ category on Saturday morning with an Air Quality Index (AQI) value of 415 on the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) city-wise AQI index at 8am. On Friday, AQI was in the “severe” category with a reading of 447 as per CPCB’s daily 4 pm bulletin.

At least 27 monitoring stations in Delhi had readings in the ‘severe’ category at 8am on Saturday. (PTI)

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ’moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

At least 27 monitoring stations had readings in the ‘severe’ category at 8am on Saturday, with Narela having the worst AQI at 457. Bawana was a close second, with a reading of 455.

On Friday, the Delhi government ordered shutting down primary schools, restricted outdoor activities for older students and imposed a ₹20,000 fine on the use of private diesel vehicles not conforming to the new BS-VI emissions standards, as the air continued to grapple with hazardous levels.

As per the early air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, the air quality is likely to remain in “severe” to “poor” category on Saturday.

Forecasts from CAQM shows that Delhi’s AQI is expected to improve from ‘severe’ to ‘very poor’ on Saturday.

“This improvement will occur on the back of a change in the wind direction. It will transition to southeasterly by Saturday and the local wind speed will also pick up, oscillating between 8-18 km/hr during the day. On Sunday, similarly good wind speed is expected and the wind direction will be northeasterly, meaning on both days, intrusion from farm fires will reduce,” said VK Soni, scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and a member of the CAQM sub-committee on Grap.