Delhi air quality deteriorates, AQI remains in 'very poor' category

The air pollution level in the national capital and areas around it deteriorated on Tuesday morning with the Air Quality Index (AQI) dipping to the 'Very Poor' category. In the morning, the AQI in Delhi docked at 302, according to the Center-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

The AQI was recorded the highest in Chandni Chowk at 500, followed by Dhirpur at 326, Airport (T3) at 312, Mathura Road at 311, Delhi University at 302, IIT Delhi at 293, Lodhi Road at 269, Pusa at 252 and Ayanagar at 218. The AQI in Noida stood at 310 and Gurugram at 204.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered `good`, 51-100 `satisfactory`, 101-200 `moderate`, 201-300 `poor`, 301-400 `very poor` and 401-500 is marked as `severe`. An AQI above 500 falls in the `severe plus` category. During winter each year, most of northern India suffers from a spike in toxicity in the air due to the change in weather patterns and crop residue burning in the neighbouring states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

The temperature at 5.30 am in Delhi was 6.8 degrees Celsius and the visibility was 1200 metres. SAFAR suggested a further deterioration in air quality to the middle-end of very poor category. An increase in surface winds are forecasted by February 5, and this is likely to improve air quality to lower end of very poor to the poor category by February 5 afternoon.            

A total of 10 trains were delayed by up to 3 hours due to fog in several parts of northern India, officials said.

According to northern railway officials, the 12779 Vasco-Nizamuddin Goa Express was delayed by 3.45 hours, 12801 Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express by 3 hours, 15955 Dibrugarh-Delhi Jn Brahmaputra Mail by 2 hours, 12273 Howrah-New Delhi Duronto Express by 1 hour, 12303 Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express by 2 hours, 12367 Bhagalpur-Anand Vihar Vikramshila Express by 1 hour, 12393 Rajendra Nagar-New Delhi Sampoorn Kranti by 1 hour, 14205 Faizabad-New Delhi Jn Faizabad Express by 1.30 hours, 12371 Howrah-Jaisalmer Express by 1 hour and 13008 Shri Ganganagar-Howrah Junction U A Toofan Express by 1 hour.