The air quality in Delhi was recorded in the ‘very poor’ category on Monday morning as the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) calculated its quality index as 309.
An Air Quality Index (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”.
The National Capital Region (NCR) continued to witness bad air as Noida recorded an AQI of 344 in the ‘very poor’ category. Gurugram’s AQI stood at 290 in the ‘poor category’ at 8 am this morning.
Dhirpur recorded an AQI of 375, Lodhi Road recorded 256, Delhi Airport (T3) recorded an AQI of 306 while Mathura road recorded an AQI of 316, Pusa recorded an AQI of 293.
The AQI at Delhi University stood at 325 while IIT Delhi stood at 350 in ‘poor category.’
Meanwhile, the Delhi government earlier on November 7 lifted various bans, imposed earlier, including the ban on the entry of trucks into the national capital.
In view of the Central government’s panel Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to revoke the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stage 4, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai announced that the ban on entry of trucks into Delhi has been lifted, which means that there is no ban on entry of trucks and non-BS 6 diesel light motor vehicles are allowed.
Curbs on BS III petrol vehicles and BS IV diesel vehicles still in force in Delhi. Rai said the ban was imposed under Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP); and that it won’t be lifted yet.
“However, the ban on private demolition and construction work will continue,” Rai said in the briefing.