Ghaziabad/Noida: Air quality in both NCR cities deteriorated to the ‘poor’ category this week, with Ghaziabad recording an air quality index (AQI) of 222 on Saturday, the second highest among 252 cities nationwide after Yamuna Nagar (228) in Haryana.In Noida, air quality slipped into the ‘poor’ category on Friday, with the AQI at 202, and remained the same at 204 on Saturday. Together, Noida and Ghaziabad were among the four cities in the country with a reading above 200. Manndideep in MP was the only other city in poor category with AQI at 212.Ghaziabad’s air quality had slipped from ‘moderate’ to ‘poor’ on Friday for the first time this season. Four of Ghaziabad’s six monitoring stations recorded an AQI above 200 on Saturday. Wave City, one of the new stations set up along the busy NH-9 and DME stretches, was the worst at 294, on the verge of the ‘very poor’ category. Loni followed at 254, Sanjay Nagar at 232 and Vasundhara at 219, all in the ‘poor’ category.Indirapuram, which has seen extensive road digging under CM-GRIDS project, along with Govindpuram, were the only stations to stay ‘moderate’, at 190 and 141.In Noida, three of the four monitoring stations crossed the 200 mark. Sector 116 recorded the worst AQI at 220. The station mainly covers areas with heavy construction activity, including sectors 110, 119 and 120, the 7x sectors and nearby parts extending towards Noida Extension.Sector 125, which covers commercial and institutional zones along Noida Expressway and Yamuna bank, was at 217. Sector 1, which covers Phase-I industrial pockets, was at 202. Sector 62 stayed ‘moderate’ at 175.Other NCR cities fared better. Greater Noida stayed ‘moderate’ at 107, against 130 on Friday, while Delhi was also ‘moderate’ at 171 and Gurgaon at 194. Greater Noida’s Knowledge Park-3 station recorded 87, which falls in the ‘satisfactory’ category, and Knowledge Park-5 recorded 126.There is unlikely to be any improvement in air quality on Sunday and Monday, a Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) forecast said. Under CPCB categories, an AQI of 51-100 is ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’ and 301-400 ‘very poor’.The early slide into the ‘poor’ band comes as enforcement agencies step up checks on industrial units and vehicles without pollution under control certificates.Last year, Noida recorded its first poor-air day on Oct 1, with an AQI of 227, but remained in the moderate category until Oct 10 before plummeting to 225 on Oct 11. Ghaziabad too had seen its first poor-air day on Oct 11, when its AQI deteriorated to 242. The deterioration came as temperatures began to dip and atmospheric conditions became less favourable for pollutant dispersion. By October 16, Ghaziabad’s AQI had reached 254, while Noida’s rose to 318, putting it in the very poor category.Earlier this week, Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) enforcement task force carried out a special inspection drive of industrial units in Loni. “Seven inspection teams carried out a special inspection in Loni on Tuesday to assess compliance with applicable environmental norms and directions of the commission. A total of 21 units/locations were inspected, and all were found non-compliant,” an official from Loni Nagar Palika said.The major violations included furnaces operating without adequate chimneys and air pollution control devices (APCDs), units running without valid consent to operate, industrial activity in non-conforming areas, use of unapproved fuel including coal, pit furnaces without stacks, non-compliance related to diesel generator sets, and waste processing without consent and adequate pollution controls.Environmentalist Sushil Raghav said the worsening air quality marked the beginning of the post-monsoon pollution build-up in the region. “The pollution season is already here. While Loni remains the Achilles heel, a new pollution monitoring station that has come up along /DME has recorded an AQI worse than Loni, which means we now have another pollution hotspot in Wave City,” he said.Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPCB) had earlier identified nine pollution hotspots in Ghaziabad, where dust pollution, traffic congestion, industrial emissions and dumping of municipal solid waste and construction and demolition waste are rampant. Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) said a plan to mitigate pollution was already in motion. “We have deployed 18 mechanical road sweeping machines, 42 water sprinklers and 21 anti-smog guns in these hotspot areas and across the city. As per CAQM policy, we have already enforced anti-smog guns at construction sites,” said a GMC official.
