Air quality dips in city, flight operations affected

CHENNAI: Despite the State government urging the public to celebrate a smoke-free Bhogi, all the monitoring stations in Chennai recorded an increase in air quality index (AQI) on Sunday morning, suggesting pollution due to the burning of old household items, which is a part of Bhogi celebration in the State.

Early morning burning of items combined with fog caused throat and eye irritation among residents in some places.

According to data released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the AQI was 126 in Alandur at 8 am. The southern part of the city recorded an AQI of 111 at the same time on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Arumbakkam and Ennore recorded an AQI of 216 and 232 respectively on the same day. While data for Ennore was not available, Arumbakkam recorded an AQI of 126 the previous day.

Kodungaiyur, Manali and Perungudi recorded AQI of 156, 127 and 289 respectively. On Saturday, these areas had an AQI of 115, 162 and 144. Royapuram and Velachery recorded 207 and 103 AQI respectively, and the previous day, it was AQI 121 and 76.

It may be noted that the AQI a day after Deepavali festival, on November 6 last year, had crossed 300 in Velachery while other neighbourhoods in the city recorded more than 250 AQI.

As CPCB standards, AQI between 51 and 100 is considered satisfactory with minor breathing discomfort to sensitive people, 100-200 is considered moderate with breathing discomfort to people with lungs, asthma and heart diseases, 201-300 is considered poor with breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure, and 301-500 is very poor and severe respectively.

Meanwhile, operations of 50 flights were delayed in the city airport due to Bhogi smoke and early morning fog. Moreover, 4 flights were diverted to Hyderabad and a SpiceJet flight, which was scheduled to take off to the Andamans from the city, was cancelled.