For the third consecutive day, the city remained covered by fog and some parts were also heavily enveloped in smog due to pollution. This affected the traffic of the city due to low visibility.
Marine Drive was completely covered with fog till evening. A similar situation was found across all the highways in the city and surrounding areas. Due to low visibility, commuters faced problem in driving.
“My office starts from 10 am and as I stay in Thane, I start my day early by 8.30am to avoid traffic rush. But due to the fog in the morning, I got delayed to reach office as I had to drive slowly for it to avoid any accident,” said Ramesh Mahajan, an IT employee whose office is located at Nariman Point.
Similarly Sneha Aggarwal, a 24-year-old who owns a TVS Scooty, said she almost met with an accident on Saturday morning when she failed to notice a grey-coloured car driving in front because of the fog.
“I almost met with an accident when the car driving in the front of me suddenly applied brake and stopped. And due to the fog, I didn’t see it,” Ms Aggarwal said.
However, officers both from traffic and highway departments informed that no accident was reported caused due to heavy fog.
“In the morning there was traffic jam at a few places but overall, there was no accident case,” said an officer from the traffic department.
Commenting on the formation of the fog, the meteorology department stated that the low temperature coupled with the mixing of warm and moisture-laden westerly winds created the fog. But environmentalists claimed that due to the rising pollution level, the fog has been changing into smog, which is a mixture of smoke and fog.
“Both on Friday and Saturday, the city recorded one of its highest air pollution levels. This has got mixed with the fog and made into a heavier composition of smog. Smog has a deadlier affect on the health of people,” said Rishi Aggarwal, an environmental activist of Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank.
Like Friday, the city on Saturday again recorded air quality far above the standard level with 320 µg/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre of air). The standard level is 100 µg/m3. Following the guideline of World Health Organisation on air quality, the city on Saturday again recorded air quality in the ‘very poor’ index, which is harmful to health with the risk of respiratory problems.
