The air pollution levels in the city on Monday dropped to a moderate level and the quality of air is expected to improve further due to sudden rise in the wind speed, experts said. Also the experts have anticipated the maximum temperature to linger below 30 degree Celsius and the minimum temperature to drop around 16 degree centigrade for next few days.

At the beginning of 2016, the air quality in Mumbai remained contaminated because of the presence of atmospheric particulate matter (PM2.5) way above the permissible limit of 100mg/m3 and also due to the phenomenon of calm winds, said an official from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

According to experts, AQI comprises averages of pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ozone (O3) and particulate matter, 60-100mg/m3 of pollutants is considered to be good on the air quality index (AQI), whereas 100-200mg/m3 is considered to be moderate, 200-300mg/m3 is poor and above 300mg/m3 is considered very poor and severe.

“On Monday PM2.5 levels recorded at Colaba, Worli and Navi Mumbai were below 100mg/m3, which falls in good category on AQI. The AQI of Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Borivali and Bhandup was in the moderate category but is expected to improve. However Andheri and Malad were the most polluted areas of the city and the PM2.5 level was above 300mg/m3,” said Dr Guffran Beig, project director of SAFAR.

Speaking on the matter, Dr Beig said, “The wind speed plays an important role in the accumulation of these pollutants in the atmosphere; low wind speed allows higher level of pollutants to accumulate in the atmosphere, whereas high wind speed scatter the accumulated pollutants.”