The air quality was marked under ‘very poor’, which is an improvement of one category from Tuesday’s marking of ‘severe’, according to environment monitoring agency SAFAR. Relatively, the situation in the metropolitan cities of Mumbai and Pune were ‘moderate’, according to SAFAR’s data.

The agency further forecast that the air quality in Delhi will further improve from ‘very poor’ to ‘poor’ in the next two days. Last week, the Indian Meteorological Department too had predicted respite from smog and air pollution from Wednesday onwards.

According to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, the Particulate Matter (PM) 10 level recorded at the city’s Mandir Marg monitoring station in central Delhi around 6pm was 232 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3), which is nearly twice the prescribed limit of 100 ug/m3.

The PM 2.5 level registered at the area around the same time was 159 ug/m3 — also twice the suggested standard limit of 60 ug/m3. The PM 10 and PM 2.5 in Mandir Marg area on Tuesday around 6pm was recorded at 238 ug/m3 and 145 ug/m3 respectively.

The PM 10 levels in south Delhi’ RK Puram and west Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh areas were recorded at 373 ug/m3 and 277 ug/m3 respectively whereas the PM 2.5 in the same areas were registered at 196 ug/m3 and 151 ug/m3 on Wednesday evening, according to the DPCC’s data.

The Delhi government has taken several stringent steps to bring down air pollution in the national capital which, the government said, will be reviewed periodically. On Wednesday, the government also launched a Swacch Delhi app to combat air pollution.