Noida and Greater Noida Achieve ‘Satisfactory’ AQI for the First Time This Season, ET HealthWorld
Noida: As a short spell of rain cleared the air, Noida and Greater Noida recorded their first ‘satisfactory’ AQI of the season, logging 92 and 94, respectively.
The last time Noida recorded a satisfactory air quality during the peak pollution months – typically, the region sees its worst air quality between Oct and Dec each year with the onset of the dry winter – was on Oct 17, 2023, when AQI was recorded at 80 on a scale of 500.
Greater Noida, which recorded six ‘good’ AQI days between Oct 6 and 11 in 2022, didn’t see any ‘satisfactory’ air day during the peak winter months that year or in 2023. Its last ‘satisfactory’ AQI day was recorded on Oct 25, 2021.
Neither of the two cities saw a speck of green in Dec at least in the last four years. An analysis of CPCB data also showed that this month Noida and Greater Noida have recorded the highest number of ‘moderate’ AQI days in Dec since 2020.
On Monday, Noida’s Sector 125 air monitoring station recorded the best average AQI at 64 (satisfactory), followed by sectors 116 at 104 and Sector 62 at 108, all in the ‘moderate’ range. Data for Sector 1 was not available immediately.
The two monitoring stations at Greater Noida – Knowledge Park 3 and 55 –recorded at AQIs at 86 (satisfactory) and 101 (moderate), respectively.
Ghaziabad’s AQI was ‘moderate’ at 135 on the day. Its Sanjay Nagar and Vasundhara monitoring stations recorded the best AQIs — 61 and 78, respectively. Indirapuram average AQI was at 98. Loni, however, stood out as the only area to record an AQI of 301 (very poor).
Mahesh Palawat, Skymet Weather‘s vice president for meteorology and climate change, attributed the improvement in the air quality to rain and moderate wind speed.
On Monday, the wind speed in the region was between 15 and 20 kmph. The wind speed may drop over the next few days again to around 8 to 12 kmph and cold wave conditions are to set in from Dec 11.
Meanwhile, an RTI query filed by a Noida resident Amit Gupta on poor utilisation of National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) funds – CPCB data shows Noida Authority has utilised merely 11% of funds allotted for three years under NCAP to fight pollution – found Noida Authority procured four mechanical sweeping machines, but only two of them were operational. The Public Health Department has responded to an RTI query, saying the Authority is still in the process of selecting contractors for the two machines. It also said tenders have been issued for the procurement of truck-mounted anti-smog guns, water tankers, and hybrid truck-mounted anti-smog gun machines using the remaining NCAP funds.
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