Air quality to improve in Delhi NCR on Saturday

The air quality across Delhi and regions around it improved marginally on Friday though remaining very poor, with pollution authorities predicting it will improve further towards Saturday.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi on Friday was 388, against 398 on Wednesday (last available) on scale of 0 to 500, both considered "very poor". Ghaziabad remained most polluted region across NCR with AQI of 441 on Friday against 451 on Wednesday, both "severe".

Meanwhile, Sector 16-A Faridabad choked with highest effluent level, as PM2.5 or particles with diameter less than 2.5 micrometres, reached 410 units at 7 p.m. -- 16 times the international standards.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), however the winds on Saturday will improve the air quality.

"Wind speed are likely to increase on Saturday during the day time, as informed by IMD. The air quality is likely to improve. Today the winds were calm," Shambhavi Shukla, member of the SC-formed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) told IANS.

At 7 p.m., of 23 regions across NCR, 10 areas suffered with either "severe" or "severe-plus" air quality, with PM2.5 ranging from 251 units (at Lodhi Road) to 410 units (Sector-16, Faridabad).

The most polluted regions included Anand Vihar (PM2.5 298 units) in east Delhi, Delhi Technical University (369 units) and Delhi University north campus (300) in north Delhi, ITO (261), Mandir Marg (270) and Lodhi Road (255) in central Delhi, Punjabi Bagh (304) in west Delhi, Siri Fort (268) in south Delhi, Vasundhra (312) in Ghaziabad, Sector 125 (252) in Noida and Sector 16A (410) in Faridabad.

The national safe limit for PM2.5 is 60 microgrammes per cubic meters while the international standards are 25 units.

--IANS

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