Noida, Ghaziabad see no scope of improvement as air quality remain severe for third day

Noida: The air quality of the National Capital Region (NCR) worsened on Saturday as pollution levels refused to budge from the “sever” category in Noida, Greater

Noida: The air quality of the National Capital Region (NCR) worsened on Saturday as pollution levels refused to budge from the “sever” category in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad for the third day.

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According to analysts, weather conditions will remain unfavourable for ventilation of marginal dispersion of pollutants till November 11.

On Saturday, wind speed in Noida and adjoining areas dropped to 4-5 kmph, which is not enough for dispersion of the smog cover in the city. Meanwhile, north-westerly winds – coming from Punjab and Haryana where myriad instances of stubble burning have been reported – are bringing in more smoke to the region.

“Wind speed did pick up in some parts of NCR, however, in Noida and adjoining areas, it was calm at 4-5 kmph, due to which dispersal of pollutants was not much. Weather conditions will remain so till November 9, after which wind direction will change from westerly to easterly. Now, when the direction changes, the speed drops for a few days, due to which on November 10 and 11 pollution levels may increase further,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Meanwhile, instances of stubble burning in neighbouring states have increased. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), a private weather forecasting agency, there were a total of 4,528 instances of fires on Friday in at least four northern states, against 3,225 on Thursday.

According to the agency, Thursday’s figure was the all-time seasonal high, and with the addition of more than 1,000 on Friday, such instances are peaking.

“The air quality has declined, despite moderate day time dispersion conditions, owing to sustained and unusually high fire emissions. Surface winds became calm today (Saturday) morning and pollutants are accumulating near the surface. Safar synergised that stubble fire counts over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and neighbouring areas increased and stood at 4,528 on Friday, the highest of this season,” said a Safar statement.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) of Noida, on a scale of 0 to 500, dropped to 426 on Saturday against 406 a day earlier, while Greater Noida was 428 against 421 on Friday. Ghaziabad was 436 on Saturday against 433 a day earlier.

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.”

Meanwhile, the average PM2.5 for Noida was 346.5 microgrammes per cubic metres (µg/m3), which is eight times the safe limit, against 270.67µg/m3 a day earlier. The PM10 for Noida was 546.62µg/m3– nine times the safe limits – against 478.077µg/m3 a day earlier.

The PM2.5 and PM10 for Greater Noida was 321.55µg/m3 (276.25µg/m3 on Thursday) and 536.37µg/m3 (520.17µg/m3 on Thursday), respectively. The standard limits for PM2.5 is 40µg/m3 and for PM10 is 60µg/m3.