Noida’s AQI improves further as rains continue

Noida: The air quality of Noida and Ghaziabad on Tuesday continued showing improvement within ‘moderate’ levels due to the rains.

Noida: The air quality of Noida and Ghaziabad on Tuesday continued showing improvement within ‘moderate’ levels due to the rains.

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According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the light drizzling will continue towards Wednesday as well followed by easterly winds. “The wind speed on Tuesday was around 10 kmph and the region saw enough rains to keep the pollution under check. The wind speed is likely to increase slightly towards Wednesday as well which will keep the ventilation better,”said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, the air quality index (AQI) of Noida, on a scale of 0 to 500, on Tuesday was 149 against 154 on Monday. Greater Noida’s AQI was 120 against 134 on Monday, while that of Ghaziabad was 148 against 168 a day earlier.

AQI of Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad was under ‘severe’ category on January 1 and 2.

AQI between 101 and 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 is ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 is ‘very poor’ and above 400 is considered ‘severe’.

The major pollutant PM2.5 levels continued to be under check and almost matching the standards. The PM2.5 levels in Noida improved to 72.6 microgrammes per cubic metres (µg/m³) against 91.12 µg/m³ on Monday and 210.36 on Sunday.

Similarly, the PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 78.75 µg/m³ against 64.91 µg/m³ a day earlier and 201.25 on Sunday. The PM2.5 levels for Ghaziabad also improved from 84.41 µg/m³ on Monday to 71.50 µg/m³ on Tuesday.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), AQI will deteriorate towards the weekend. “Rain observed over many places in the Delhi region, under the influence of active Western Disturbance, the wet spell is likely to continue for the next 24 hours. AQI is likely to stay in the moderate to satisfactory category today and moderate to poor category tomorrow (Wednesday). AQI is likely to marginally deteriorate and in the too poor to lower end of the very poor category on January 7 and 8,” said the SAFAR statement on Tuesday.