Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: For a change, Delhi’s lungs feel lighter. The capital, notorious for its choking smog in winter, has suddenly found itself breathing easy, thanks to continuous showers.
On most days, the city struggles with an Air Quality Index (AQI) hovering between 200 and 300, often slipping into the “poor” or even “very poor” category. But on September 2y morning, monitoring stations reported a different picture — AQI levels between 25 and 60 — in the “excellent” category. Delhi’s Anand Vihar clocked 66, while DU’s North Campus saw 55. IGI Airport and Nehru Nagar matched at 53.
The National Capital’s traditionally polluted areas were recording numbers one could hardly believe — Najafgarh (43), Okhla (34), Majnu Ka Tila (39) and Punjabi Bagh (42). Ghaziabad too breathed cleaner air, with Sanjay Nagar at 38, Indirapuram at 41 and Vasundhara at 39. Loni stood at a moderate but still respectable 51. And in Noida’s Sector-1, the AQI dropped to just 25, a figure rarely seen in the NCR. Residents have welcomed the respite with joy. “It feels like Mussoorie has shifted to Delhi,” a Noida resident said, adding that for the first time in months, she could sit on her balcony and breathe in the cleanest air.
