Noida: The air quality in Noida and Ghaziabad slipped into the ‘poor’ category from the ‘moderate’ readings on Tuesday. A new monitoring station at New Tehsil, Loni, recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 374 at 4 pm, indicating that the air quality in the area was in the ‘very poor’ category, which can trigger respiratory illness in case of prolonged exposure.Noida had an average AQI of 246 and PM2.5 was the major pollutant. At 4pm, the air quality around the Sector 62 station was the worst at 298, followed by that at the Sector 39 station at 267. The AQI at the Sector 125 station was 227, at the Sector 116 station was 200 and at the Sector 1 station was 235.The air quality in Greater Noida also worsened considerably. It deteriorated from 82 (satisfactory) on Tuesday to 220 (poor) on Wednesday evening. Both the monitoring stations — Knowledge Park III and Knowledge Park V — recorded AQIs of 210 and 229, both in the ‘poor’ category.Ghaziabad too slipped from the ‘moderate’ category with an AQI of 140 on Tuesday to the ‘poor’ category with an AQI of 210 by Wednesday evening. However, the spatial difference in air quality at different monitoring stations was in a huge range. The Govindpuram monitoring station located within a green belt recorded an AQI of 52 with PM2.5 identified as the dominating pollutant, whereas New Tehsil, Loni, recorded an AQI of 374 dominated by PM10 pollutants.Regional officer of UPPCB (Ghaziabad) Ankit Singh said the department is installing monitoring stations in different pockets of the district to get a real picture of the air quality. “We have installed two new monitoring stations and ensured that the air quality is monitored in the industrial area, residential area, commercial area and green belt as well,” he said, adding that the monitoring station at New Tehsil has started recording air quality now.Meanwhile, Delhi recorded the fourth poor day of the month as the air quality index worsened to 229 Wednesday. Relief, however, is likely as Delhi is expected to see rain Thursday and Friday.Central Pollution Control Board’s data shows that Delhi recorded a three-day streak of poor air days from Oct 21 to 23. Graded Response Action Plan’s stage I was imposed on Oct 21. However, after winds picked up and rain hit the city, the air quality remained moderate for four days from Oct 24 to 27.However, after winds slowed down Wednesday, the air quality deteriorated to poor. Vivek Vihar was the most polluted station with an AQI of 313 at 6 pm. The contribution of stubble burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 was 0.9% Wednesday. At 197, AQI was in the higher range of the moderate category Tuesday.
