Pollution data unavailable amid technical glitches as haze envelopes Delhi

The problem has persisted since Sunday, when Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) data was not updated for around 11 hours post-noon

Technical glitches in updating pollution data continued as Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) remained stuck on 315 (very poor), and a haze enveloped the city on Monday. The Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) Sameer app showed the last update for AQI data was at 10:43pm. There have been no updates since.

The previous forecasts showed the AQI was likely to stay “very poor” on Monday. (HT PHOTO)

Updated AQI data was also missing from the CPCB website, which officials said was due to a technical glitch. The problem has persisted since Sunday, when AQI data was not updated for around 11 hours post-noon. The CPCB failed to release its daily national bulletin at 4pm, which was eventually issued at 10:45pm.

The bulletin showed Delhi’s AQI was 315, a deterioration from 292 (poor) on Saturday. “There were some technical glitches. Old data from some stations had flooded our servers and had to be manually fixed,” an official said.

The Sameer app at 10:43pm showed that out of the 38 active stations, Anand Vihar (431) and Bawana (401) were in “severe” and 23 were in “very poor” categories at that time. It usually shares an updated 24-hour AQI every hour, meaning data has not been updated for at least 12 hours now.

An AQI of 51 to 100 is classified as “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 as “moderate”, 201 and 300 as “poor”, 301 and 400 as “very poor”, and over 400 as “severe”, as per the CPCB.

Hourly readings for all eight pollutants used to calculate the AQI — including PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb — were available on the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC)’s website, indicating that data were still being gathered.

On January 1, data for AQI stations across Delhi-NCR were unavailable due to a similar server issue. On November 14, 2023, data were available for nine out of the 40 stations for hours. DPCC‘s stations were unable to share or transmit data to the CPCB.

On October 31, 2022, data was not updated for over 11 hours due to a similar glitch. Data on CPCB’s app remained stuck between 5am and 4pm. The national bulletin was released for that day.

The previous forecasts showed the AQI was likely to stay “very poor” on Monday, before possibly improving again as wind speed may marginally increase.