Mumbai was world’s second most polluted city on Monday: Swiss Co

Mumbai is the second most polluted city in the world with an overall AQI value of 167 (in the afternoon) as per the live city AQI ranking and in the list of cities with most polluted air, by IQAir, a Swiss firm, on Monday. While Beijing, China tops the list, Mumbai secured the second position, Delhi, the seventh position and Kolkata at 24. As per IQAir's live air quality monitoring, overall AQI recorded in Mumbai on Monday afternoon was 167, which reduced to 158 in the evening but the city retained its position as second-most polluted city on October 23. Delhi, which was in fourth position during the day with an AQI value of 155, dropped to seventh by evening recording an AQI value of 144.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor", and 401-500 "severe". An AQI above 500 falls in the "severe/ critical plus" category.

Even as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has swung into action and begun its air pollution mitigation measures on a war footing, poor air quality continues to envelope the financial capital. While the overall AQI value of the city is in moderate category, many areas in the city continue to record poor AQI.
The air quality index (AQI) in multiple areas of the city during the day had surpassed the 200-mark, categorizing it as ‘poor' and posing significant health risks. This situation is expected to persist.

While the AQI improved in some areas, some continued to remain poor in the evening. As per CPCB's SAMEER app AQI recorded on Monday evening at Colaba (MPCB station) - 238, Denoar (IITM station) -275, Mulund west MPCB) - 244, Kherwadi- Bandra East (MPCB) and Sion (MPCB) - 200.

Also read: Mumbai: 29-year-old man beaten up for opening his own shop in Sion, four arrested

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and BMC would depute experts to verify the level of pollution caused by refineries in the city.

City to remain hot for the next few days

On Monday, IMD's Santacruz observatory recorded a temperature of 35.7 degrees Celsius, while the Colaba observatory was 33.5 degrees Celsius. "While humidity would reduce a little, temperature would remain around 33 to 34 degrees Celsius for the next few days," said an IMD official. Between October 23 to October 25, initially warm and humid, with around 35 degrees Celsius in the day. The smoggy atmosphere may decrease to improve the AQI in the city to around 100-125. On October 26 and October 27, the hazy conditions will improve, as the humidity is likely to drop, and dry East winds will dominate.