Delhi wakes up to thick smog as AQI continues to remain 'very poor'

New Delhi, November 8: The national capital's air quality remained in the 'very poor' category on Tuesday morning, with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of 321, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

The city's overall AQI was 326 on Monday morning. The National Capital Region (NCR) also continued to experience poor air quality, with Noida registering very poor air quality with an AQI of 354 and Gurugram's AQI remaining in the 'very poor' category at 326.

In Delhi, the level of PM 2.5 and PM 10 was 147 in the 'very poor' category and 275 in the 'poor' category, respectively.

The AQI at all major monitoring stations in the national capital was also in the 'very poor' category.

Pusa recorded an AQI of 322 and Dhirpur had an AQI of 339. Lodhi Road had an AQI of 317, Delhi Airport (T3) had an AQI of 323 and Mathura Road had an AQI of 338. The AQI at Delhi University was 336, while at IIT Delhi it was 293 in the 'poor category.' At 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Ayanagar was also in the 'very poor' category, with a score of 330.

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Air Quality Indexes ranging from 0 to 100 are considered good, while those ranging from 100 to 200 are considered moderate, those ranging from 200 to 300 are considered poor, those ranging from 300 to 400 are considered very poor, and those ranging from 400 to 500 or higher are considered severe.

Following the relative improvement in the Air Quality Index, the Delhi government lifted various earlier bans, including the ban on truck entry into the national capital, on Monday.

The Delhi government also revoked orders to close schools and allow 50% of government employees to work from home.

The directives were issued in response to the Central Government's Commission for Air Quality Management's (CAQM) decision to revoke the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stage 4 after the national capital's air quality became 'severe' last week.

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