Air quality in Delhi continues to remain in ‘very poor’ category

The overall air quality in the national capital continued to remain in the 'very poor' category on Tuesday morning

New Delhi: The overall air quality in the national capital continued to remain in the ‘very poor’ category on Tuesday morning, as per SAFAR-India.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the Air Quality Index in the overall Delhi region was in the ‘very poor’ category at 303. In the Delhi University area and Pusa, the quality of air was recorded as ‘very poor’ and ‘poor’ with AQI at 335 and 242, respectively.

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IIT Delhi breached the very poor category with an AQI of 306. The quality of air at the Airport (T3) was also in the very poor category, with an AQI of 313. The Mathura Road recorded 173 AQI, coming under the moderate category.

Meanwhile, Noida recorded an AQI of 308 (very poor) and Gurugram 249 (poor).

Earlier on Monday morning, the overall air quality in the national capital was recorded in the ‘very poor category’, with the AQI at 306.

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.

Moreover, India Meteorological Department (IMD) scientist VK Soni told ANI on Monday that there will be some improvement in the air quality after the implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), but it will remain in the ‘very poor’ category until October 26.

The IMD scientist said that the AQI was close to 300 on Monday and that there are hopes that the measures taken under GRAP 2 will benefit the air quality.

GRAP is a set of guidelines and measures implemented to combat air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR) of India, which includes Delhi and its surrounding areas.