Delhi AQI at 329: Air quality worse than yesterday, remains ’very poor’

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), Delhi's air quality remained in the "very poor" category on November 9 morning, with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of 329. The city's overall AQI was 321 on November 8 morning.

The National Capital Region (NCR) also continued to experience poor air quality: Noida had an AQI of 380, placing it in the "very poor" category, and Gurugram had an AQI of 336.

All of the major monitoring stations in the national capital recorded AQI readings that were also in the "very poor" category. Dhirpur had an AQI of 320, while Pusa had a 342 reading. Lodhi Road had an AQI of 329, Mathura Road had an AQI of 332, Delhi Airport (T3) had an AQI of 326, and so on.

At Delhi University, the AQI was 360, while at IIT Delhi, it was 306, which put them in the "very poor category". From 0 to 100, the air quality is good, from 100 to 200, it's moderate, from 200 to 300, it's poor, from 300 to 400, it's "very poor," and from 400 to 500 or higher, it's "severe."

In the meantime, the Delhi government lifted a number of restrictions on Monday, including a ban on trucks entering the national capital, in response to the relative improvement in the Air Quality Index.

In addition, the directions for 50% of government employees to work from home and close schools were revoked by the Delhi government. As Delhi's air quality deteriorated, the primary schools that had been closed will reopen today. For secondary school students, restrictions on outdoor activities will also be lifted as of today.

After the national capital's air quality turned "severe" last week, the directions were issued in response to the Central government panel Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)'s decision to revoke the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stage 4.

However, Delhi will continue to impose restrictions on BS III gasoline and BS IV diesel vehicles. The ban was imposed in accordance with Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), according to Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai the ban will not yet be lifted.

A Central government panel revoked the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stage 4 on Sunday due to the improvement in Delhi-NCR air quality over the past few days. However, the current GRAP-3 ban on non-essential construction activities would remain in effect.

(With ANI inputs)