Gurgaon 3rd most polluted city on New Year

GURGAON: Fireworks burst by New Year's Eve revellers pushed Gurgaon up the charts to the third most polluted city in India, as air quality index (AQI) hit 367, which is considered `very poor'.

According to data provided by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), on the first day of the year, Gurgaon's 24-hour average AQI was 367 on January 1, behind Agra with AQI at 402 (severe) and Faridabad at 379 (very poor).

In comparison, Delhi's AQI was 344 -also `very poor' -but better than Millennium City . Other cities that recorded `very poor' air quality were Kanpur, Lucknow, Muzaffarpur and Varanasi.

On Sunday morning, 24hour concentration of PM2.5 also remained high. The city woke up to a foggy and polluted morning, with 24-hour average PM2.5 at 270.65 micrograms per cubic metre (g m3) at 6am, 27% more than the previous day , which stood at 213.77gm3.