As Delhi’s Air Quality Index continues to remain in the “poor” category, Mumbai is following the trend with a thick smog and a “very poor” category AQI for a few days now.
Since the beginning of this week, Mumbai’s air pollution levels started rising up and its AQI almost touched that of Delhi on Wednesday.
India’s financial hub’s air quality was “very poor” and is expected to remain the same for the next two or three days, government data showed.
On Friday morning, several places in Mumbai recorded this category including Chakala-Andheri East at 217, Powai (211), Bandra Kurla Complex (249), Mulund West (246) Kandivali East (204), according to Central Pollution Control Board.
“It is going to get worse in Mumbai because there are no restrictions on construction activity. The roads are all dug up because of the metro and vehicular traffic is crawling, leading to more pollution,” environmentalist Debi Goenka told Reuters.
Meanwhile, several places in the national capital today remained in the “very poor” category including, Anand Vihar at 345, Nehru Nagar (346), Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (308), RK Puram (344), Patparganj (321), CPCB data showed.
Why is AQI deteriorating in Mumbai?
Continuous infrastructure works along with a shift in wind patterns are being attributed behind this, experts said. As Mumbai is a post city, its AQI is mostly dependent on the speed of the wind, and wind patterns.
“There has been no reversal of wind patterns, due to which the city is recording poor AQI. Usually, wind pattern reversal happens much frequently in Mumbai than Delhi due to the sea. It is only after the wind speed increases that particulate matters disperse,” Gufran Beig, scientist and programme director of SAFAR said, The Indian Express reported.
Earlier this week, several areas in Mumbai recorded higher air pollution levels than Delhi. These include, Mazagaon (381), followed by Malad (323), Colaba and BKC (309), Andheri (303), Bhandup (280), Chembur (266), Worli (190) and Borivali (173).
Delhi AQI trends
In Delhi, pollution levels slightly improved on Thursday, but still remained in the poor category. The city’s minimum temperature settled at 8.3 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average.
At 10 am on Thursday, Delhi’s overall AQI stood at 262 (poor category), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said.
Meanwhile, the Centre’s air quality panel on Wednesday ordered the lifting of curbs under stage 3 of the anti-pollution action plan in Delhi-NCR, including a ban on non-essential construction work.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.
With agency inputs
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