Delhi air quality remains ‘severe’; temperature drops to 5°C
Delhi’s air quality continued to remain in the ‘severe’ category on Wednesday, with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recording an average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 442.
A thin layer of smog blanketed parts of the national capital in the morning, reducing visibility.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the city saw a drop in temperature from 7.4°C on Tuesday to 5°C on Wednesday morning.
The AQI at 7 a.m. on Wednesday marked a further deterioration from Tuesday’s reading of 421, as recorded by the CPCB.
Several areas in the city experienced alarmingly high AQI levels, with ITO at 458, Alipur at 471, RK Puram at 464, and Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at 443. Chandni Chowk and Lodhi Road registered slightly lower but still hazardous readings in the ‘very poor’ category, with AQIs of 374 and 348, respectively.
As the AQI crossed the 400 mark, authorities implemented Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across the National Capital Region (NCR) on Tuesday in response to the worsening air quality.
