The air pollution level in the national capital and areas around deteriorated slightly on Thursday morning with the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching the mid of the ''Poor" category. In the morning, the AQI in Delhi docked at 235, according to the Center-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).
The AQI was recorded the highest in Chandni Chowk at 302, followed by Mathura Road at 290, Dhirpur at 273, Delhi University at 248, Ayanagar at 244, Lodhi Road at 222, Airport (T3) at 214, IIT Delhi at 206 and Pusa at 175. The AQI in Noida stood at 311 and Gurugram at 258.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered `good`, 51-100 `satisfactory`, 101-200 `moderate`, 201-300 `poor`, 301-400 `very poor` and 401-500 is marked as `severe`. An AQI above 500 falls in the `severe plus` category. During winter each year, most of northern India suffers from a spike in toxicity in the air due to the change in weather patterns and crop residue burning in the neighbouring states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
The temperature at 5.30 am in Delhi's Safdarjung and Palam was 9.4 degrees Celcius. The visibility at both Safdarjung and Palam was 1,000 metres. The national capital also witnessed a shallow fog.
According to SAFAR, the current western disturbance and induced cyclonic circulation is influencing the AQI positively. It forecasted that the increase in moister may lead to foggy conditions on Thursday. On Friday (January 10), the SAFAR suggested marginal deterioration of air quality. The fall in minimum temperature by 3-4 degree is expected from January 9-11 and the maximum temperature by 4 to 5 degrees during till January 10.
Low visibility conditions continue to affect the movement of Railway trains, mostly in the northern region of the country. The bad weather delayed at least 21 Delhi-bound trains, by one to over six hours, on Thursday. According to Chief PRO, Northern Railways, Maldah-Delhi Jn Farakka Express (13483) is running late over six hours, while Dibrugarh-Delhi Jn Brahmputra Mail (15955) along with Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express (12801), and Gaya New Delhi Mahabodhi Express trains are likely to witness a delay of about four hours, followed by Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Duruntoo Express (12281) is running behind its schedule by 3 hours.
Notably, the bad weather conditions had also affected the movement of several trains including Faizabad-Delhi Express (14205) along with Hyderabad-New Delhi Telangana Express (12723) witnessed a delay of six hours, followed by Katihar-Delhi Champaran Humsafar Express (15705) that ran behind its schedule by 4 hours on Tuesday.
