The air quality in the national capital remained in the ‘severe’ category on Tuesday morning, with the AQI at 427 while the minimum temperature settled at 5.9 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal. Out of the 35 monitoring stations, 28 recorded air quality in the ‘severe’ category, while some crossed the 450 mark, which is classified as ‘severe plus’. The remaining seven stations recorded air quality in the ‘very poor’ category, according to the SAMEER app, which gives hourly information from the Central Pollution Control Board. An AQI of 400 or above is considered “severe” and can adversely affect both healthy people and sick people.
“Delhi witnessed generally calm winds during the last 24 hours, reducing visibility from 800 metres in haze at Palam on Monday to 350 metres in haze at Safdarjung on Tuesday morning,” the weather department said. It said that haze conditions (visibility between 200 metres to 500 metres) are likely to continue in Delhi for the next two days as calm or easterly winds are likely to prevail at the surface. The humidity was 97 per cent at 8:30 am. The maximum and minimum temperatures are predicted to be 24 degrees Celsius and 5 degrees Celsius, respectively. The Centre’s weather department on Monday imposed the most stringent phase 4 check under the winter season pollution control programme for Delhi-NCR, which includes a ban on all construction activities as the weather quality of the region has turned ‘severe’ due to bad weather. The phase 4 check under the Review Response Activity Programme (GRAP) for winter also includes a ban on the entry of trucks carrying non-essential goods into Delhi and a ban on the movement of all school children except those of Classes 10 and 12 in cross breed mode. The decision to impose checks under Phase 4 was taken just hours after restrictive measures under GRAP Phase 3 were imposed after the AQI in Delhi crossed 350 in the afternoon.