Delhi's air quality improves slightly but remains in 'poor' category

Pic/PTI

Delhi's air quality improved slightly on Wednesday morning but remained in the "poor" category with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of 273, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

On Tuesday, the city recorded an AQI of 294 at 4 pm, a marginal drop from Monday's reading of 301, which fell under the "very poor" category.

Despite the overall improvement, 11 out of Delhi's 38 monitoring stations continued to record AQI in the "very poor" range with readings above 300, data from the CPCB's Sameer app showed.

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

Meanwhile, the minimum temperature in the national capital settled at 18.2 degrees Celsius, 2.1 degrees above normal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 28 degrees Celsius, the IMD has forecasted shallow fog in the city on Wednesday.

The relative humidity was 89 per cent at 8.30 am, it said.

The CAQM has prohibited the entry of commercial goods vehicles registered outside the national capital that remain non-compliant with BS-VI emission standards from November 1.

The official notification issued by CAQM states earlier, "The Commission with a view to abate air pollution caused by high volume of transport/commercial goods vehicles entering into Delhi, in exercise of its powers conferred under Section 12(1) of the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2O21, issued Statutory Direction No. 88 dated 23.04.2025, directing for a strict ban on entry of all transport/ commercial goods vehicles viz. LGVs, MGVs and HGVs, other than BSVI, CNG, LNG and EVs, into the NCT of Delhi w.e.f. O1.11.2025 except such vehicles registered in Delhi."

According to the notification, non-BS-VI compliant commercial goods vehicles are allowed to enter Delhi only until October 31, 2026.

The Delhi government completed two consecutive cloud seeding operations as part of its robust air quality management strategy.

Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that with this move, the national capital has taken an unprecedented, science-first step by adopting cloud seeding as a tool to control air pollution. "Our focus is to assess how much rainfall can be triggered under Delhi's real-life humidity conditions. With every trial, science guides our actions--for the winter and all year round."