The week leading up to round two of the odd-even scheme will see Delhiites breathe slightly cleaner air, with particulate matter expected to remain in the moderate range.
The Capital sees PM levels of “severe”, “very poor”, and “poor” for the majority of the year, as per the Union Ministry of Earth Science’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) index.
However, on Thursday, levels of both fine and coarse PM (PM2.5 and PM10) were categorised as “moderate” by the SAFAR-India air quality index.
Though the PM levels were well above the standards, the air was relatively cleaner than last month. But, that is par for the course as the temperature increases.
Gufran Beig, the project director of SAFAR, said: “Cleaner air blowing from the mountains and higher temperatures have led to an improvement in air quality in Delhi.”
On Thursday, the city-wide average level of PM2.5 was 84 micrograms per cubic metre, while the standard says 60 is permissible. The level of PM10 was at 210.8 micrograms per cubic metre, while the safe limit is 100. The levels of PM on the weekend would remain moderate, according to the SAFAR forecast.
However, the air quality was worse in many parts of the city. According to the National Air Quality Index, the AQI score was “poor” in Dwarka, R.K. Puram and Anand Vihar, which had PM2.5 levels of 259, 278 and 284 micrograms per cubic metre respectively. Shadipur had an average PM2.5 level of 304 micrograms per cubic metre as of 5 p.m. making the AQI “very poor”.
Meanwhile, various monitoring agencies are gearing up for the odd-even, which begins from April 15.
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee, which started its monitoring on Wednesday, continued to collect samples from across the city for a second day.
SAFAR, which collected real-time data during the first round of odd-even, will also be carrying out a special study this time round to assess the impact of the scheme.
Last time, which was in January, experts found it difficult to asses the impact of fewer cars being on the roads as the weather conditions could not be isolated.
