Delhi pollution: Air quality still very poor, not likely to get better soon

NEW DELHI: Delhi's air quality continued to remain in 'very poor' category with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 346 on Saturday as compared to 331 a day earlier. No improvement in air quality is expected over the next few days.

's data shows that the air quality of the city stayed in 'very poor' for the seventh consecutive day. "Light winds prevailed in the city from 7 am to 9 am. However, the wind direction was westerly. Similar condition is expected to prevail during the next two days," said Mahesh Palawat, vice chairman, .

He added that a western disturbance would pass on Sunday. "There may be slight improvement in the air quality as winds may pick up after two days. The influence of the western disturbance will be over by Sunday," said Palawat.

According to Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, which is the forecasting body under the union ministry of earth sciences, the air quality is likely to remain very poor till Dec 2 and the subsequent six days.

On Saturday, Shadipur was the most polluted station with an AQI of 416 in 'severe' category at 4 pm, followed by Jahangirpuri and Burari Crossing at 398 and 397 in the 'extreme end of very poor' category. However, most stations in Delhi remained in the higher end of very poor range throughout the day. "Mainly clear sky condition with wind speed less than 6 kmph west-northwest direction prevailed over the region in the forenoon on Saturday," said IMD in its bulletin.

In contrast, adjoining districts fared better than Delhi. The AQI stood in 'poor' category at Noida (258), Greater Noida (292), Ghaziabad (252) and Gurgaon (291). However, Faridabad's AQI was in moderate range at 175.

CPCB classifies an AQI between 0 and 50 as 'good', between 51 and 100 as 'satisfactory', between 101 and 200 as 'moderate', between 201 and 300 as 'poor', between 301 and 400 as 'very poor', and over 400 as 'severe'.

Delhi saw shallow fog at both Safdarjung, which is the city's base station, and Palam. The lowest visibility of 600 metres was recorded at Safdarjung at 7 am, which improved to 1,500 metres at 1 pm. Palam recorded the lowest visibility of 800 metres at 7.30 am which improved thereafter and became 2,100 metres at 1 pm.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 9.8 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal. The maximum temperature was settled at 26.8 degrees Celsius, one notch above normal.