New Delhi: Delhi remained blanketed by a thick haze on Wednesday with its air quality dropping further, largely due to the heavy load of smoke from stubble burning in neighbouring Haryana and Punjab, according to government agencies. Weather experts said the problem aggravated due to unfavourable wind speed that lead to accumulation of pollutants. A relief is likely on the weekend, they said. The city's pollution levels peaked at 2 am, touching the 423 mark.

The overall air quality index (AQI) oscillated between 410 and 420 during the day, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board. Twenty-seven of the 37 air quality monitoring stations across Delhi recorded the AQI in the "severe" category. Anand Vihar was the most polluted area in the capital with an AQI of 464 and Wazirpur following with an AQI of 462. NSIT, Dwarka, was the least polluted with an AQI of 355.