Delhi: Air quality nosedives to 'very poor', no respite even after rain

A light downpour that hit some areas of the national capital and its adjoining regions failed to improve the overall air quality index on Monday.

Delhi breathed uneasily as the Air Quality Index (AQI) at Mathura Road was docking at 340 in the morning with Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5. 

At Dhirpur, the AQI was 372 while in Pitampura area it dipped to 'very poor' category at 385.

The AQI between the range of 51 to 100 is considered as satisfactory, 101-200 is moderate, 201-300 falls under the category of poor. 300-400 is considered as `very poor` and range between 401-500 falls under the category as 'hazardous'.

Furthermore, AQI near Pusa Road, Airport Terminal 3 and Chandni Chowk stood at 304, 319 and 307 respectively. The haze and fog will continue to persist during the early mornings and late evenings for the next couple of days.

Due to the foggy weather, at least 13 trains were rescheduled after getting delayed by at least 2 hours.

The trains — Kaifiyat Express, Poorva Express, Magadh Express, and Rewa-Anand Vihar Superfast Express were delayed by 2 hours each.

Owing to low visibility, the railways delayed Gaya Anand Vihar Garib Rath Express, Brahmaputra Mail Express, Swatantra Senani Superfast Express and Purushottam Express by 3 hours, 5 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours and 4.30 hours respectively.

Today, the minimum and maximum temperatures recorded in Delhi was 8 degree Celsius and 19 degree Celsius. The humidity in the region throughout the day will oscillate between 95 per cent to 97 per cent, said India Meteorological Department.

As per the Skymet Weather, a private weather forecasting agency, from today onwards dense to very dense fog is expected to make an appearance over Northern Plains. 

The intensity of fog during that time will be much more and visibility may drop down to zero. The reason for foggy mornings will be attributed to the scattered rainfall in the region.