Ghaziabad country’s most polluted city as AQI plummets to 459 on Tuesday

GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad air quality on Tuesday plummeted to ‘severe’ category from ‘very poor’ a day before with AQI recorded at 459 making it country’s most polluted city. UP Pollution Control Board officials attributed prevailing weather condition along with local factors for dip in air quality and the condition is expected to remain same for at least two days.

“At AQI of 459 Ghaziabad became country most polluted city with all its four monitoring stations breaching 400 mark” said Utsav Sharma, regional officer, UPPCB. “The AQI at four monitoring stations-Vasundhara, Indirapuram, Sanjay Nagar and Loni was recorded at 466, 454, 462 and 454 respectively” added Sharma.

Giving specific reasons for spike in AQI, Sharma says “As per SAFAR data stubble fire counts of Haryana & Punjab have increased from 1654 to 2577 during the past 24 hours.” “This coupled with meteorological conditions such as surface winds slowing down especially during night hours helping aiding accumulation of pollutants like PM10 and PM2.5” added Sharma.

As per SAFAR the AQI will remain in the higher end of very poor category for the next two days and the AQI is expected to improve only after 1 November.

As a precautionary measure the GRAP is already in place and all coal-based industries in the city have been banned. “There is also a ban on construction activities in the district and different departments and agencies are keeping round the clock vigil for any violations of air pollution norms” said Sharma.