Delhi pollution: Air quality in 'very poor' category on Saturday morning

The air quality in the national capital New Delhi was in the 'very poor' category with an overall AQI of 303, as per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

On Friday morning, the index value was a touch below 300.

The Air Quality Index in Noida and Gurugram this morning is 321 and 283, respectively, SAFAR data showed.

Air Quality Index is a tool for effective communication of air quality status to people in terms, which 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 yesterday 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 lower end of '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.