Air still ‘severe’, Ghaziabad is most polluted city again

NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: With an air quality index of 428 in the 'severe' category, Ghaziabad once again became the most polluted city in the country on Wednesday.
However, the air quality has improved by a few notches compared to Tuesday when the city recorded an AQI of 451.
Loni was the worst-performing area as its pollution monitoring station recorded an AQI of 457 on Wednesday, followed by Sanjay Nagar with an AQI of 433, Indirapuram with an AQI of 407 and Vasundhara with an AQI of 405.
Meanwhile, the air quality in Greater Noida and Noida showed a marked improvement on Wednesday, compared to Tuesday. Noida recorded an AQI of 374 in the 'very poor' category, down from 426 in the 'severe' category on Tuesday. Greater Noida on Wednesday recorded an AQI of 378, down from 412 on Tuesday.
In Greater Noida, the monitoring station at Knowledge Park 3 recorded an AQI of 356 while Knowledge Park 5 registered an AQI of 396. Out of the four monitoring stations in Noida, Sector 125 recorded an AQI of 373 and Sector 1 had an AQI of 365. Meanwhile, Sector 116 recorded the highest AQI of 387. The data at Sector 62 was insufficient for calculating AQI.
According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), winds are likely to pick up in speed in the next two days.
The direction of these winds would be favourable for transporting pollutants due to stubble burning to Delhi-NCR. Fire counts, meanwhile, are also increasing.
The air quality may deteriorate in the next two days. However, the AQI will remain in the upper end of the 'very poor' category or reach the lower end of the 'severe category'.