Smog covers Delhi-NCR as air quality turns ‘severe’, flights diverted
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New Delhi: As many as ten flights have been diverted from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in the capital city after thick smog covered the city and surrounding areas causing poor visibility, NDTV reported.
The flights diverted include six to Jaipur and one to Lucknow after Zero-metre visibility was recorded at the airport at 8.30 am today.
It is reported citing the India Meteorological Department (IMD) that the Runway Visual Range varied between 125 and 500 metres at different locations.
Pointing to the worsening situation, the report said that AQI between zero and 50 is in the category of ‘good’, while 51 and 100 'satisfactory'.
However, an AQI between 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', 401 and 450 'severe'.
Taking to social media platform X, Delhi International Airport Limited said that even as landing and takeoffs continue at the airport ‘flights that are not CAT III compliant may get affected.’
CAT III is a navigation system that helps aircraft land even if visibility is low.
It is reported that a dense smog enveloped area including Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad.
Subsequently, the Delhi’s air quality index hit the 'Severe' category crossing the 400 mark.
However, the situation in Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad are found to be in the ‘poor’ category, while Faridabad is pegged at ‘Moderate’.
Delhi, according to the Central Pollution Control Board reportedly, remained in the ‘poor’ category for two weeks before AQI entered the ‘severe’ category.
Two monitoring stations in Anand Vihar and Aya Nagar reported that air quality was in the ‘severe’ category.
Even as the weather department forecast shallow fog for Wednesday, a ‘very dense’ fog began to cover up the city at around 5.30 am.
It was predicted that maximum temperature expected to be somewhere around 32 degree Celsius.
Air quality in the Indo-Gangetic Plains raised concerns as three Bihar cities, two Haryana cities and Chandigarh emerged as the the top 10 polluted places in the country.