India’s metro cities experienced yet another day of bad air quality, with most cities barring Kolkata witnessing an AQI reading of 100, on October 28, according to data released by the Central Pollution Control Board.
While Delhi continued to breathe in 'very poor' air quality with the Air Quality Index shooting past 300 for the second consecutive day, Mumbai’s AQI levels remained over 100 for the fifth day in a row.
Chennai’s AQI rose to the highest level of 131 since the start of October, while Hyderabad also faced its worst AQI reading since the start of the month.
Kolkata was better placed, being the only major city with an AQI reading of below 100.
In Gujarat, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar had AQI readings of 124 and 145.
In contrast, international megacities like New York, London had better air conditions. New York had an AQI level of 27 on October 28, lower than 250 Indian cities, while London had an AQI of 30.
Beijing also had an AQI reading of 104, which is lower than most Indian metros, and Singapore had an AQI of 61.
Among the 253 cities for which data was published by CPCB, over 12 percent or 31 cities had poor or very poor air quality. A city is defined having a poor air quality when its AQI reading is anything between 201 and 300, while cities with over 300 AQI are categorised as very poor air quality.
The national capital was the only city across the country with very poor air quality.
A majority of cities, 113 of them, had moderate air quality with an AQI of 101-200, while only 29 cities had good air quality with an AQI reading below 50.
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