NEW DELHI: Pollution levels in Delhi fell due to clearer skies and a moderate wind speed on Wednesday, and conditions are likely to improve further with remnants of Cyclone Maha affecting the weather in northwest India, including Haryana, Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi NCR.
“The remnants of Cyclone Maha from the Arabian Sea are coming through Rajasthan with western disturbances in northwest India tonight, and are likely to bring light rainfall by tomorrow in all these states, including Delhi NCR. This is definitely going to change the weather and air quality for the better,” senior IMD scientist Kuldeep Srivastava told this newspaper.
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Meanwhile, on the third day of the Odd-Even car rationing scheme in the city, the number of violators caught increased in number. The total number of challans issued on Wednesday was 709, including 406 by the traffic police, 185 by the transport department and 118 by the revenue department. This is more than double the figure for the first day, when the number was just 271.
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The number of private buses which the Delhi government had planned to procure felt short of the target even on the third day, with only 641 on the roads.
However, the Air Quality Index in several places improved to the “poor” and “moderate” categories. The levels of PM2.5 — tiny particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter that can enter the lungs — dropped to 107 micrograms per cubic metre in the Delhi-NCR region.