Delhi’s AQI ‘very poor’, no respite till Thursday

Delhi’s air quality worsened on Monday as it was in the ‘very poor’ category due to a combination of winds, local pollutants and dipping temperature.
The average air quality index (AQI) stood at 307 at 11am on Monday, with forecasts showing that AQI is expected to remain over 300 till Thursday.
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR is expected to hold an emergency meeting in the national Capital Delhi today, with a review to be held on whether stage-2 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) needs to be invoked or not.
Also Read:Delhi govt blames Haryana, UP for worsening air in Delhi
Stage-2 or the ‘very poor’ category of GRAP has 11 measures, which includes strict enforcement on restrictions related to diesel generator (DG) sets, enhancing parking fees in the city to discourage use of private transport and augmenting public transport such as bus and metro services. DG sets over 19 kW in capacity need to either be retrofitted with emission control devices (ECD) or should be modified to run on a dual-fuel mode that is a combination of diesel, petrol or natural gas.
Delhi’s average AQI stood at 277 (poor) at 4pm on Sunday, when the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) releases its national bulletin each day. It was 278 (poor) at the same time on Saturday. However, calm winds throughout the day saw this AQI rise steadily and by 11pm on Sunday night, it had crossed 300.
The CPCB classifies AQI between 0-50 as “good”, between 51 and 100 as “satisfactory”, between 101 and 200 as “moderate”, between 201 and 300 as “poor”, between 301 and 400 as “very poor”, and over 400 as “severe”.
This is the first time in nearly four months Delhi’s air has turned ‘very poor’. On June 19, the AQI was 306.
Following withdrawal of the southwest monsoon from Delhi on October 2, AQI has gradually been rising in the city as mercury begins to drop and farm fires start rising in Punjab and Haryana.
The Decision Support System (DSS), a model under the ministry of earth sciences, which estimates contribution of differences sources to Delhi’s air, said local sources along with cross-boundary pollution from neighbouring NCR towns was still the primary reason behind Delhi’s deterioration in AQI.
DSS estimated the contribution of Delhi’s transport sector to be around 9.9% on Monday, followed by 9.8% coming from neighbouring Gautam Buddha Nagar. This is followed by 8.2% coming from Ghaziabad. The estimated contribution of stubble burning is 2.8% for the day – up from 1.8% the previous day.