Mumbai’s air quality dips to poor again

Mumbai: After a spell of moderate air quality, Mumbai’s air quality again dipped to ‘poor’ as per System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) that could lead to eye-irritation, breathlessness and coughing to ‘sensitive people’. The Air Quality Index (AQI) for the city was recorded as 243 at 3pm on Sunday. An AQI between 200 and 300 is considered ‘poor’.  All the major areas of the city also fell under poor to very poor category in terms of particulate matters. According to SAFAR officials, the rise in the AQI levels is due to the fluctuations in temperature.

Areas like Bandra Kurla Complex, Mazagaon, Bhandup, Borivali and Navi Mumbai recorded ‘very poor’ air quality with PM2.5 levels more than 300. The PM2.5 arises from vehicular emissions mostly. Borivali air recorded PM2.5 levels as 319, while Navi Mumbai recorded 328 for the same. Meanwhile Colaba recorded poor levels of PM2.5 at 251. “The temperatures have risen in the city last week which contributed to clean air at that time. However as the temperature has again dipped, the particulate matters remain trapped in the surface air,” said Gufran Beig, Project Director, SAFAR.

The city recorded minimum temperature of 17 degrees and 20 degrees at Santacruz and Colaba observatories respectively. The maximum temperature elevated up to 32 degrees on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Chembur had the purest air on Sunday.