Noida: Despite light rainfall on Friday, air quality saw only marginal improvement, with Noida’s AQI returning to the ‘poor’ category after 11 days of ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ conditions. While daylong drizzle led to waterlogging at some parts, visibility dropped to 600m in the morning.Noida logged an AQI of 270, a significant shift from 335 the day before. In Greater Noida, the AQI shifted to 249 from Thursday’s 314. In Ghaziabad, too, the AQI shifted to ‘poor’ at 278 from 359 the day before. In Delhi, too, the AQI shifted to 282 in the ‘poor’ range on Friday from 322 (very poor) on Thursday.According to the Central Pollution Control Board portal, all four of the city’s air monitoring stations recorded ‘poor’ air on Friday, with Sector 125 recording the worst AQI at 297, followed by Sector 116 (AQI 279), Sector 1 (AQI 279) and Sector 62 (AQI 225). In Greater Noida, Knowledge Park V (AQI 285) and Knowledge Park III (AQI 213) were both in the ‘poor’ range as well.In Ghaziabad, Loni recorded the worst AQI at 363 in the ‘very poor’ category, followed by Vasundhara (AQI 299), Sanjay Nagar (AQI 240) and Indirapuram (AQI 209) – all three in ‘poor’ range. Noida saw eight ‘very poor’ and two severe AQI days since Jan 12 when it last saw ‘poor’ air quality at 274.According to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), the predominant surface wind on Friday the predominant surface wind came from the southeast direction with wind speed less than 20 kmph during the afternoon hours. The wind speed decreased to 10 kmph during the evening and night.On Saturday, the city will record generally cloudy sky with shallow to moderate fog during morning hours. The predominant surface wind is likely to be from the north direction with wind speed less than 10 kmph during the morning hours. The wind speed will then increase up to 15 kmph in the afternoon, evening and night.While traffic movement was not affected on key stretches like the Noida Expressway, DND Flyway and Chilla border, Friday’s rainfall led to waterlogging in some areas, including sectors 37 and 28.Sujit Kumar, a commuter near Sector 28, said that a slight rainfall leads to water logging near the car market. “The road’s slope needs to be fixed,” he added. Soumyojjwal Datta, another resident, posted a video on X of snarls and reported traffic jam near Prateek Edifice in Sector 107 in the morning.
