Delhi air remains 'very poor'; pollution likely to improve from Thursday

The Air Quality Index (AQI) of the national capital was 347 --'very poor'-- at 8 am, according the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecast agency SAFAR

Delhi's air was unhealthy on Tuesday, deteriorating from yesterday as a state-run forecasting system predicted that the national capital's air will remain very poor for two days.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) of the national capital was 347 --'very poor'-- at 8 am, according to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecast agency SAFAR. Readings below 50 are considered safe, while anything above 300 is considered hazardous or 'severe'.

Moderate wind speed and partly cloudy conditions are likely to keep Delhi's air quality within the lower end of the 'very poor' category for the next two days, according to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) .

The situation is predicted to improve from Thursday due to a likely increase in wind speed.

Currently, educational institutions, including schools and colleges, are shut in the national capital while ban on construction activities, entry of trucks carrying non-essential items into Delhi continues. 

Delhi was this morning the world's second most polluted city with an AQI of 255, said iQair, a website that tracks air pollution worldwide. The only other Indian city in the list of the world's top ten most polluted cities was Kolkata at the ninth spot with an AQI of 163.

Delhi's air quality in November was the worst in seven years, data showed. The national capital's air quality became worse after Diwali on November 4 as people violated a ban on bursting firecrackers while the pollution compounded due to an increase in stubble burning by farmers in areas adjoining the national capital.

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.