NEW DELHI: The national capital recorded ‘poor’ air quality on Friday, with no improvement expected over the next nine days, according to official data. The capital’s air quality index (AQI) stood at 230, the data showed.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s Sameer app, three of the 56 monitoring stations in the city recorded air quality in the ‘very poor’ category, with Pusa recording the highest AQI at 324. While 36 stations recorded ‘poor’ air quality, the AQI readings from the remaining 17 stations were in the ‘moderate’ category.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’ and 401 to 500 ‘severe’. Delhi’s air quality is likely to remain in the ‘poor’ category from October 23 to October 26. It is likely to remain unchanged over the subsequent six days, according to the Air Quality Early Warning System.
A ventilation index below 6,000 square metres per second, coupled with an average wind speed of less than 10 kmph, is unfavourable for the dispersion of pollutants, the forecast said.
According to the Decision Support System for Air Quality Management in Delhi by IITM Pune, the transport sector contributed 20.3% to the city’s air pollution, followed by residential sources at 5.2%, industries at 4.2%, construction at 2.6%, energy at 2%, waste burning at 1.8%, road dust at 1.4%and other sectors at 1.3%. Among the NCR districts, Gurugram’s contribution to Delhi’s pollution was the highest at 8.8%, followed by Jhajjar at 6.1% and Gautam Buddha Nagar at 4.7%. Ghaziabad contributed 3.7%, Sonipat 3.5%, Faridabad 3.3%, Panipat 2.8%, Alwar 2.4%, Baghpat 2.1%, Rohtak 2%, Rewari 1.8%, Bulandshahr and Bhiwani 0.8% each, Mahendragarh 0.7% and Karnal 0.6%.
Stubble burning accounted for 5.1% of the pollution, while other sources contributed 9.5%, according to the Decision Support System for Air Quality Management.
The maximum temperature at Safdarjung, Delhi’s base weather station, settled at 32.2 degrees Celsius and the minimum at 19 degrees Celsius, according to the IMD.