Noida: The city’s air saw a slight improvement on Wednesday, with pollution monitoring stations logging an AQI of 291 (‘poor’). On Tuesday, the AQI was 301 (‘very poor’).In contrast, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida recorded a deterioration of AQI on Wednesday. Ghaziabad’s AQI dropped 53 points to 297 and settled in the ‘very poor’ category. Greater Noida’s AQI was also in the ‘very poor’ category — monitoring stations logged an AQI of 257 compared to Tuesday’s 233.According to IMD, westerly winds in the region carried pollutants from Delhi to the NCR cities, which led to the drop in air quality. Noida and Ghaziabad lie directly downwind of Delhi during westerly flows. As air moves eastward, Delhi’s dense vehicular and urban emissions merge with local industrial and construction dust, frequently leading to the worsening of the AQI.In Ghaziabad, six of the eight stations recorded an AQI in the ‘very poor’ category, ranging from 300 to 400. Wave City monitoring station, adjacent to NH24, recorded the poorest AQI of 351, followed by Loni tehsil at 334. Govindpuram and Indirapuram, which were in the ‘moderate’ zone on Tuesday, recorded ‘poor’ air with an AQI of 211 and 204, respectively.In Noida, only one station – Sector 62 – recorded a ‘very poor’ AQI of 381. It remained the most polluted region out of the 19 monitoring stations of NCR cities, east of Delhi. The remaining six monitoring stations of Noida remained in the 200-300 AQI range. Sector 125 logged an AQI of 299 and Sector 39 recorded 288, barely missing the ‘very poor’ category.All four monitoring stations in Greater Noida recorded ‘poor’ air quality, with Knowledge Park V station logging the poorest AQI of 287 and Shiv Nadar University that of 233, which was the best of the four.After a considerable gap, not a single monitoring station out of the 19 in the NCR cities recorded ‘moderate’, ‘satisfactory’ or ‘good’ air quality, and the baseline shifted to the ‘poor’ category.
