Air quality improves drastically in Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad, Gurgaon

The air quality improved drastically to reach “moderate” level in Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad after two weeks, while it was recorded “poor” in Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, a government agency data said Monday.  Presence of pollutant PM 2.5 and PM 10 also remained high in the five immediate neighbours of Delhi, according to the air quality index (AQI) maintained by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

According to the index, an AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

The average 24-hour AQI at 4 pm on Monday was 243 in Ghaziabad, 256 in Greater Noida, 176 in Noida, 120 in Faridabad and 101 in Gurgaon, according to CPCB’s Sameer app.

On Sunday, it was 318 in Ghaziabad, 332 in Greater Noida, 322 in Noida, 303 in Faridabad and 239 in Gurgaon, the app said.

The CPCB states that an AQI in the “poor” category may cause breathing discomfort to people, while “moderate” may cause breathing discomfort to the people with lungs, asthma and heart diseases.

The AQI for each city is based on the average value of all stations there. Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad have four stations each, while Gurgaon has three and Greater Noida two, according to the app.