The air quality of Delhi continued to be in the ‘very poor’ category on Friday and is expected to deteriorate and enter ‘severe’ category on Sunday. The air quality is likely to improve and enter ‘very poor’ category again by Tuesday, said government-run monitoring agency SAFAR.
The city’s air quality index (AQI) on Friday was 373 (very poor), up from Thursday’s 349, according to the 4 p.m. bulletin of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which is the average of the past 24 hours.
“The AQI on Saturday is forecast to be at the higher-end of ‘very poor’ category with some areas entering ‘severe’ category. Strong near-surface inversion is predicted for Saturday and December 29 night which will make AQI further deteriorate and touch ‘severe’ category on December 29 and 30,” SAFAR said.
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On Friday, the average level of PM2.5 was 200.9 ug/m3 more than three times the safe limit of 60ug/m3, as per Indian standards, in Delhi-NCR at 6 p.m., the CPCB said. But the level is more than eight times the safe limit of 25 ug/m3, as set by WHO.