Noida AQI ‘severe plus’ as air quality plummets in Delhi-NCR

At least four NCR cities recorded “severe” air quality index (AQI) readings of over 400

Noida: Air quality in the National Capital Region plummeted sharply on Saturday, with at least four cities recording a “severe” air quality index (AQI) and accounting for four of the five cities across the country that recorded AQI readings above 400. Among these, Noida fared the worst, recording an AQI of 455, and was the only city to breach the 450 mark.

Experts attributed the spike in pollution to slow wind speeds (HT photo)

Among these, Noida fared the worst, recording an AQI of 455, and was the only city to breach the 450 mark.

Gurugram, on the other hand, fared relatively better, clocking an AQI of 322 (“very poor”) on the day. According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB’s) daily AQI bulletin, Delhi recorded an AQI of 431, Greater Noida recorded an AQI of 442, and Ghaziabad recorded an AQI of 430, all of which are categorised as “severe”.

On Friday, Ghaziabad recorded an AQI of 363, Noida 386 and Greater Noida, 373.

Experts attributed the spike in pollution to slow wind speeds and unfavourable meteorological conditions that hindered the dispersal of pollutants.

“Over the past few days, moderate winds had helped temporarily improve air quality across Delhi NCR. However, an approaching western disturbance over the western Himalayas led to a reduction in wind speeds over the northern plains,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president of climate and meteorology at Skymet Weather.

He said that between Friday and Saturday, winds remained light during the daytime and nearly calm during the night, allowing pollutants to accumulate near the surface, and pushing the AQI into a hazardous range.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR, in a meeting on Saturday, held to review the status of sector-specific enforcement by NCR governments, surprisingly noted that NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh fared relatively better.

“NCR Districts of Uttar Pradesh exhibited comparatively satisfactory performance towards abatement of air pollution in the region. However, it must establish and comply with the timelines committed for focused action(s), especially for the vehicular sector,” the CAQM said.

A deadline of December 31 has been given for the development of the web portal for vehicle aggregators, delivery service providers and e-commerce entities for NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. CAQM also urged all states and the GNCTD to adopt AI-driven surveillance, monitoring, and analytics for pollution abatement, stressing unified winter efforts across sectors.

The CAQM also said that Delhi needs to effectively tackle traffic congestion at various hot spots, road dust, disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) and its burning, and directed the Delhi government to convene monthly meetings on decongestion of identified hot spots.

The CAQM also observed that Haryana’s NCR districts had shown poor performance in traffic decongestion, road dust control and MSW management, particularly in Gurugram. Directions given to the state government include multi-agency teams for surprise inspections, dedicated squads, MCG-led hot spot identification, rigorous vehicular pollution measures, night patrolling and ANPR camera roll-out.

Weather conditions over Gautam Budh Nagar and adjoining Ghaziabad remained unfavourable for pollutant dispersion on Saturday as well, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting fog or mist during early morning hours over the coming days.

The IMD’s seven-day outlook for both Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad indicated the persistence of similar conditions till at least December 18, with early morning fog or mist likely on most days.