Noida: Despite parts of NCR recording sporadic rainfall and high-speed winds, the region’s AQI saw little improvement on Thursday. In Noida, the Air Quality Index (AQI) remained ‘poor’ at 222 against 246 on Wednesday. Greater Noida, too, saw a minor change as AQI went to 214 from 220 the day before. Neighbouring Ghaziabad saw slightly more improvement as air quality was ‘moderate’ at 147 on Thursday against Wednesday’s 210.In Noida, all seven monitoring stations recorded PM2.5 as the dominant pollutant, with Sector 62 remaining the most polluted, registering an average AQI of 274. The Sector 39, Sector 110, Sector 125 and Sector 150 stations also recorded air quality in the ‘poor’ category, while the Sector 116 and Sector 1 stations saw comparatively better air quality with an AQI of 150, qualifying for the ‘moderate’ category.In Greater Noida, PM10 was identified as the dominant pollutant at both the monitoring stations at Knowledge Park III and Knowledge Park V, indicating that dust control has not been effective in the region.All eight monitoring stations in Ghaziabad recorded ‘moderate’ air quality, with New Tehsil-Loni station recording a marked improvement from Wednesday’s 374 (very poor) to 158 on Thursday. Indirapuram remained the most polluted with an average AQI of 181, whereas Govindpuram monitoring station recorded an AQI of 56 with PM2.5 as the dominating pollutant. Of the eight monitoring stations, six recorded high levels of PM2.5, while New Tehsil-Loni and Vasundhara remained plagued with fugitive dust.According to the forecast by India Meteorological Department (IMD), the weather system under the influence of northwesterly winds is likely to remain active over Delhi for the next 24 hours with its peripheral impact on the NCR cities, which will maintain air circulation and help evacuate the pollutants to some extent on Friday as well.On Thursday, western parts of Delhi received sporadic rainfall while the rest of the NCR experienced high-speed winds. Around 1 millimetre of rainfall was recorded in Ghaziabad till 8.30 am on Thursday, which helped mitigate the pre-existing pollutants to some extent.
