At 208, city’s AQI improves after four days of hazardous air

The AQI of Chembur still remained in the ‘very poor’ category at 303. The AQI of Mazgaon, which was in the ‘very poor’ category a few days ago stood at 273, Malad at 228, Colaba at 215 and Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) at 208 all remained in the poor category

Mumbai: After breathing ‘very poor’ air for four consecutive days, the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) saw a slight improvement on Monday with the System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) recording 208 overall AQI of the city. The number, however, falls in the ‘poor’ category.

View of Mumbai’s skyline engulfed in smog from Marine Drive. Gufran Beig, founder and project director, SAFAR and chair professor, NIAS, IISc, said, “The slight improvement in the AQI can be seen as surface wind speed has increased and direction is also coming from the ocean. This is just a temporary relief though.” (HT PHOTO)

Experts predict that the AQI may just be a temporary relief for the Mumbaiites and the city’s air quality will drop to the ‘very poor’ category in the coming days.

Gufran Beig, founder and project director, SAFAR and chair professor, NIAS, IISc, said, “The slight improvement in the AQI can be seen as surface wind speed has increased and direction is also coming from the ocean. This is just a temporary relief though, once wind reversal happens in three-four days, the AQI will again drop to a ‘very poor’ category.”

The AQI of Chembur still remained in the ‘very poor’ category at 303. The AQI of Mazgaon, which was in the ‘very poor’ category a few days ago stood at 273, Malad at 228, Colaba at 215 and Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) at 208 all remained in the poor category.

The AQI of Navi-Mumbai recorded on SAFAR stood at 322, which falls in the ‘very poor category’.

Experts in the past have noted a requirement for denser air quality monitoring in Mumbai and have said just nine stations are not enough. The daily 4pm bulletin by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) also recorded ‘Moderate’ AQI level of Mumbai at 137. The discrepancy is caused as the SAFAR has monitoring stations at nine locations in the city, while CPCB calculates the overall AQI based on 17 monitoring stations including those in the same locations as SAFAR with an average of past 24 hours.