The air quality in the national capital continued to remain in the ‘very poor’ category as the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) recorded Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) at 346 on Tuesday morning.

On Monday, the SAFAR recorded Delhi’s AQI at 317. At the Delhi University area, the air quality was recorded ‘very poor’ with the presence of PM 2.5 in the air recorded at 371, whereas the Pusa area recorded it at 341.

In its latest forecast, the SAFAR recorded the quality of air in Dhirpur as ‘severe’ as the AQI here reached 460. Noida, also saw the air quality in the ‘severe’ category as the AQI rose to 438 today.

Meanwhile, Lodhi Road and Mathura Road also experienced ‘very poor’ air quality with AQI at 306 and 344, respectively.

The AQI at the Delhi Airport Terminal 3 was also recorded ‘very poor’ at 347.
Air Quality Index is a tool for effectively communicating air quality status to people in terms that are easy to understand. It transforms complex air quality data of various pollutants into a single number (index value), nomenclature and colour.

The Air Quality Index from 0 to 100 is considered as 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.

Amid continuing poor air quality, the Sub-Committee for invoking actions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) held a meeting on November 18 to review the progress of the actions implemented under Stage II along with Stage I of the GRAP in the entire NCR.

As per the dynamic model and weather/ meteorological forecast provided by IMD/ IITM, the overall air quality is likely to fluctuate largely between ‘Poor’ to the lower end of the ‘Very Poor’ categories in the next few days.

The predominant surface wind is predicted to be coming from the North/ North-West direction in Delhi, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said.

The Sub-Committee of the Commission is closely watching the situation and will review the air quality scenario accordingly.