Noida: A day after air quality slipped to ‘poor’, Noida’s AQI improved marginally on Saturday but the city continued to remain enveloped by a layer of smog. Sector 62, the city’s office hub, peaked at the upper levels of ‘very poor’, logging 390. In neighbouring Ghaziabad, Indirapuram recorded a peak of 430 (severe).
After seven ‘poor’ air days on the trot, Noida saw some relief on Thursday, when it recorded an AQI of 169 (moderate) as wind picked up speed. But on Friday, it was back to poor again (222), before improving marginally on Saturday. It settled at 209 as wind speed dropped towards late evening.
Delhi’s air quality too, improved a tad within the poor category. At 4pm, the average AQI was 255 compared with 270 a day earlier. By 4pm, four of the 36 monitored stations were under the very poor category. Anand Vihar was the most polluted at 370. Many more areas slipped into the ‘very poor’ category after 7pm.
In both Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, air quality deteriorated. It slipped 56 points on the AQI scale to settle at 256 in Ghaziabad. Greater Noida’s AQI worsened to 232, slipping from 199 recorded a day ago.
In Greater Noida, Knowledge Park III recorded 243 and Knowledge Park V recorded an AQI of 237 – both in the poor category.
According to an Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) bulletin, air quality is expected to deteriorate further into the very poor category on Sunday and Monday, potentially reaching severe levels thereafter. The predominant surface wind on Saturday came from the west/northeast direction in Delhi at a speed of 8-12 kmph under a clear sky. The wind speeds are forecast to reduce to 6-10 kmph on Sunday.
The air quality has affected the health of the city’s residents. “I got medicines and I am taking precautions for the last two days,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Sector 51. Utsav Sharma, UPPCB regional officer for Noida, said the department’s enforcement drive on Saturday issued fines worth Rs 8.5 lakh on nine persons for violation of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
“Six developers were fined in Sector 136, one each in Sector 155, Sector 11, and Sector 153. These developers did not cover the construction materials at the site. There was also a lack of dust mitigation measures like sprinkling water and using anti-smog guns at the site,” he said.
Meanwhile, Noida Authority said 14 inspection teams visited 80 locations. Additionally, 45 tankers sprinkled treated sewage plant (STP) water across 150km of roads, and 12 mechanical sweeping machines covered 350km of roads.
Article source: bawaal.in
