Air quality dips in Delhi, NCR; Air Quality Index 'severe'

New Delhi: As the temperature starts reducing in the national capital, the air quality on Friday deteriorated further and remained in the “severe” category as the Air Quality Index stood at 402, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday.The agency predicted that the air quality will improve in the next two days.

“The air quality is likely to improve further but remain Very Poor on December 25 and 26 because the predominant surface wind is likely to be coming from Southeast/East direction of Delhi,” IMD said.

The concentrations of PM 2.5 and PM 10 stood at 261 in the `severe` and 423 in the `very poor` category respectively, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

Meanwhile, the air quality of neighbouring cities in the NCR region like Noida and Gurugram remains in the 'severe' and in 'very poor' category as well.According to the Central Pollution Control Board, the air quality index in Faridabad was 406, in Gurugram 325, in Ghaziabad 370 and in Noida Sector 62 it was 427.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor' and 401 and 500 'severe'.Meanwhile, the minimum temperature in Delhi settled at 6.9 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal, according to IMD.

The day is expected to see 'moderate fog' and the maximum temperature is likely to settle at 24 degrees Celsius, it said.The relative humidity was 94 per cent at 8.30 am.

On Thursday, the city's minimum and maximum temperatures was 5.5 and 23.1 degrees Celsius respectively.Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday said 34,411 complaints have been received through Green Delhi App, out of which 32,897 complaints have been resolved.

“Any citizen in Delhi can complain about incidents of pollution they witness through this app, depending on which the government takes further action. The app is a joint platform of 27 departments of Delhi, and a nodal officer has been appointed for every department to operate this app,” he added.(UNI)