Delhi air quality remains 'poor' for third consecutive day

Representation Pic

The overall air quality in Delhi continued to remain in the 'poor' category for the third straight day on Saturday morning, as per the SAFAR-India.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR)-India, the overall air quality in the national capital is in the 'poor' category with an AQI of 286. After being in the 'moderate' category with an AQI of 190 on Wednesday, the city's AQI has been in the 'poor' category since then with 256 on Thursday and 249 on Friday.

In the Delhi University area and Pusa, the quality of air was recorded as 'very poor' and 'poor' with AQI at 316 and 201, respectively at 7 am today.

The quality of air in the IIT Delhi region also remained in the poor category with an AQI of 276. The quality of air at the Airport (T3) was also in the poor category, with an AQI of 293. The Mathura Road recorded 165 AQI, coming under the moderate category.

Meanwhile, Noida recorded an AQI of 255 (poor) and Gurugram 200 (moderate).

Air Quality Index (AQI) is a tool for effective communication of air quality status to people in terms, which are easy to understand. It transforms complex air quality data of various pollutants into a single number (index value), nomenclature, and colour.

The AQI from 0 to 100 is considered good, while from 100 to 200 it is moderate, from 200 to 300 it is poor, and from 300 to 400 it is said to be very poor and from 400 to 500 or above it is considered as severe.

Earlier on Friday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that a 15-point winter action plan is being implemented one by one to curb the pollution.

"Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier announced a 15-point winter action plan to curb the pollution caused by vehicles, biomass burning, dust, etc. Now this winter action plan is being implemented on the ground one by one to reduce the pollution in the national capital," Rai told ANI.

The Delhi Minister said that since one of the major causes of the pollution is vehicles, they have started the 'Red Light on, Gaadi off' campaign on Thursday.

"Now the data says that in AQI the level of Particulate matter (PM) 10 is decreasing and that of PM2.5 is increasing. This means that pollution caused by vehicles and biomass burning is increasing. For this, the 'Red Light on, Gaadi off' campaign has been started since yesterday," the Delhi Minister said.

"This campaign started from the Income Tax Office (ITO) on Thursday. It will be conducted at Barakhamba Road and other locations in the city. On November 2, this campaign will be held in 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi. On November 3, the campaign will be promoted in schools via eco clubs," he added.

Rai said that through this campaign, they are trying to control the unnecessary burning of fuel and the spreading of pollution in the national capital.

To mitigate pollution, water was sprinkled through an anti-smog gun in the Anand Vihar area on Thursday.

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