MUMBAI: On Friday, the city experienced its best air quality this year as Mumbai recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) in the 'good' category. According to System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), Mumbai's AQI on Friday was 93. On the other hand, the other two cities monitored by Safar - Delhi and Pune recorded an AQI of 204 and 100 respectively.
An AQI between 0 and 100 is considered good which means that air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk. AQI uses the 24 hour averages of pollutants, including sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ozone (O3) and particulate matter. This is the second time this year that the AQI went into the good category. On March 25, the AQI recorded in the morning was 99 but it deteriorated to 101 (moderate) in the evening.
The low pollution levels were attributed to strong clean winds. "The process had started on Thursday when the clean winds from the Arabian sea picked up speeds and were blowing at approximately 4-5 knots. The winds got stronger on Friday and touched almost 7 knots. This caused the pollutants to be carried out," said GufranBeig, project director, Safar.
Out of the 10 locations in the city monitored by Safar, the AQI was in the good category in six out of the 10 and four were in the 'moderate' category. Malad recorded the cleanest air with an AQI of 20 and Mazgaon was the most polluted with an AQI of 183. The pollution levels in the city had taken a hit during the Deonar dumping ground fire on March 20. It had breached the 'poor' category on a few days following the fire.
