Delhi's air continues to be 'very poor'

New Delhi, Dec 6 (IANS) The air quality of the national capital on Tuesday morning continued under the "very poor" category as the quality index was recorded at 321 level.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the city's overall Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 321 in the "very poor" category this morning. The concentration of both PM 2.5 and PM 10 in the environment was recorded at 321 and 196 respectively under "very poor" and "moderate" category respectively on Tuesday.

As per the SAFAR forecast, the city's air quality will continue in "very poor" category with slight improvement with AQI escalating to 310 on Wednesday.

Notably, he AQI between zero 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, to prevent further deterioration of the air quality, the Sub-Committee for operationalisation of the revised GRAP on Sunday invoked the Stage III of the GRAP with immediate effect in the Delhi-NCR, in addition to all action under Stage I and Stage II of the GRAP.

Based on it, the transport department of Delhi govt restricted the entry of BS-III, Petrol and BS- IV, Diesel LMVs (4 wheelers) in NCT of Delhi, with immediate effect on Monday.

The air quality index at Pusa, Lodhi Road, and Mathura Road were recorded 324, 303 and 266 respectively in the very poor and poor category this morning as per the SAFAR system.

The overall Air Quality Index of Delhi's neighbouring cities of NOIDA further deteriorated into the "very poor" category with the air quality index recorded at 352. While Gurugram's overall air quality has also further deteriorated to the "very poor" category as the AQI was reported at 321.