NEW DELHI: Delhi continued to grapple with severe air pollution and dense fog on Saturday as well, with more than half of the city’s air quality monitoring stations recording alarming levels. At the same time, the city experienced its first cold wave of the season, with two of its five monitoring stations—Safdarjung and Palam—recording cold wave conditions.
Out of 39 monitoring stations, 22 reported an air quality index (AQI) above 400, placing them in the “severe” category. Areas such as Chandni Chowk with an AQI reading of 465, Rohini at 462, Wazirpur at 455, Anand Vihar at 451, and Punjabi Bagh at 440 were reported to be the worst affected, highlighting that “severe” pollution was a city-wide phenomenon. The average AQI of the past 24 hours on Saturday was 398.
Along with severe air pollution, weather condition became bad on Saturday. The minimum temperature dipped to 6.10 Celsius. The foggy conditions, combined with patches of cloud cover, continued to persist until afternoon. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for fog for Sunday and Monday, indicating continued adverse weather.
Dense fog induced low visibility significantly impacted air travel, with the IGIA seeing 129 cancellations on Saturday. The Delhi International Airport Ltd said it banked on low visibility procedures for landings and advised travelers to check with their respective airlines for scheduling changes.