Delhi air quality 'very poor'; schools, colleges shut till further notice

Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) was 379 --'very poor'-- at 8 am on Wednesday

Toxic air engulfed Delhi on Wednesday a day after schools and colleges in the national capital and cities nearby were shut indefinitely and construction work was banned.

Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) was 379 --'very poor'-- at 8 am, according to the state-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR). Readings below 50 are considered safe, while anything above 300 is considered hazardous or 'severe'.

After Diwali on November 4, the national capital's AQI levels became worse after people violated a ban on bursting firecrackers while the pollution compounded due to an increase in stubble burning by farmers in areas adjoining Delhi.

A ban on construction work and offline classes in Delhi was extended to all cities falling in the National Capital Region (NCR) and trucks carrying non-essential supplies will not be allowed to enter the national capital, said the Commission on Air Quality Management on Tuesday.

The commission asked the governments of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to allow 50 per cent of their employees to work from home till November 21 and also advised private offices to follow the same.

Across Delhi NCR, construction activities, demolition projects, with exceptions for railway services/stations, metro operations, airports and bus terminals, national security or defence-related activities and projects, have been stopped till November 21.

Delhi was the second most polluted city on the planet with an AQI of 287, said iQair, a website that tracks air pollution worldwide. Kolkata and Mumbai were other Indian cities on the website’s list of 10.

Air pollution costs Indian businesses $95 billion or roughly 3 per cent of its GDP every year, according to U.K.-based non-profit Clean Air Fund and the Confederation of Indian Industry, Bloomberg reported before.