Air quality in Delhi-NCR remains in 'severe' category; likely to improve by Friday, says SAFAR

New Delhi: The air quality in Delhi and NCR region remained in the ‘Severe’ category on Thursday morning as the private and government-run schools in the National capital remained closed for Thursday and Wednesday. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the overall air quality of the National Capital docked at 472 at 7:00 AM on Wednesday. The overall Delhi AQI is at the higher end of the ‘Severe’ category. “The effective stubble fire counts estimated by Safar-integrated multi-satellite methodology has shown decreasing trend (480 counts on 12 November) Hence, a decline in biomass share in Delhi’s air quality is estimated as 13 percent for 14 November in spite of favourable transport-level wind trajectory,” SAFAR stated. Though a slight improvement in day time pollution concentration is expected today, but PM 2.5 levels will start to increase immediately after sunset, it added. It went on to share that the air quality is likely to deteriorate during stable night and Fridat and stay in the ‘Severe’ category. Air quality condition is likely to marginally improve by tomorrow (Friday), but a reasonable improvement to the ‘very poor’ is expected only by 16 November (Saturday). The Supreme Court had on Wednesday asked the central government to explore Hydrogen based fuel technology to find solutions to combat air pollution in Northern India including Delhi-NCR.