Roads broken by rain kick up dust, turn Noida’s AQI ‘poor’

Noida: With little rain over the week, air quality in the city started early signs of deterioration. On Tuesday, Noida recorded its first ‘poor' air day of the month with an air quality index (AQI) of 210, up from the 195 (moderate) recorded the previous day.
Ghaziabad and Greater Noida too, breathed ‘poor' air for two days. On Monday, Ghaziabad's AQI was recorded at 227, which deteriorated to 262 on Tuesday.Greater Noida's AQI was 202 and 236 on the consecutive days.
Since the onset of monsoon on June 28, Noida experienced regular rain activity, keeping air quality in the ‘satisfactory' to ‘moderate' range. Between Sept 1 and 24, Noida recorded one ‘good' air day — on Sept 13 at 46 — but its AQI largely oscillated between satisfactory and moderate.
Rain helps wash out pollutants, but with no showers in the past few days, air quality has begun to decline again.
UPPCB Noida regional officer Utsav Sharma said there was no early onset of fog or smog, which typically occurs in late Oct or Nov, and attributed the marginal slide in AQI to no showers, road dust and vehicular pollution. "The recent rains have wreaked damage on several roads, opening up potholes and rough patches on several stretches. As there has been no rainfall activity over the last few days, damaged roads have started to create dust bowls, impacting air quality," Sharma said.
"Due to dry weather, local strong winds have lifted the dust. Besides, the mixing of westerly and easterly winds in the city has led to haziness," said Mahesh Palawat, vice-chairman at Skymet Meteorology.
On Sept 19, district magistrate Manish Kumar Verma wrote to Noida Authority to identify and repair potholes and submit a report within a week. The district administration also directed various govt departments, including transport, office of chief development officer, NTPC, forest department, sub-divisional magistrates, chief medical officers, and organisations such as CREDAI, FONRWA, NMRC, and DMRC, to assign nodal officers and take measures to control pollution within their jurisdictions.
Haze over Delhi too
In Delhi, the average AQI worsened to the higher end of ‘moderate' category at 197, according to Central Pollution Control Board's bulletin released at 4 pm. However, by 6 pm, the city's air quality entered the ‘poor' category with an AQI of 201, rising to 204 by 8 pm. The last time Delhi recorded a ‘poor' air day was on June 12 at 211.
Rain is expected to return to Delhi from Wednesday night. India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasts light rain or thunderstorms on Thursday and Friday. Rain is predicted to be accompanied by gusty winds at speeds of 25-35 km/h.