Delhi air quality still in 'very poor' category; AQI recorded at 309

With the slight improvement in pollution level, the air quality in the national capital was recorded in the 'very poor' category on Monday morning with an AQI of 309, as per System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research SAFAR.

However, the National Capital Region (NCR) continued to witness bad air as Noida, which is part of the national capital region, recorded an AQI of 344 in the 'very poor' category. Gurugram's AQI stood at 290 in the 'poor category' at 8 am in this morning.

Speaking of other places, 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.'

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.

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. Gopal 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," Gopal Rai said in the briefing.