Smog envelops Kol pockets due to pollution spurt, drives up AQI – Times of India

Kolkata: Although the minimum temperature dropped by a degree in Kolkata on Thursday, the air quality index (AQI) worsened at most monitoring stations. Parts of the city were covered by smog, which could be the result of a spurt in pollution levels, said experts. With the mercury set to remain low for the next 48 hours, conditions may not change for the better, they said. Kolkata recorded a minimum temperature of 12.7°C on Thursday.
Most automated air quality monitoring stations in the city revealed that the air quality was poor, while a station at the Rabindra Bharati University campus recorded very poor air along with another station in Howrah.
Readings at 2pm showed the RBU station had the worst AQI in Kolkata at 348, high enough to cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure. In Howrah, Ghusuri recorded an AQI of 374.
The monitoring station at Bidhannagar just about managed to stay in the poor category with an AQI reading of 295. Rabindra Sarobar recorded the best ambient air at 229, followed by Belur Math in Howrah at 243, Victoria Memorial at 251 and Fort William at 277. The only station that recorded ambient air at the moderate level, with AQI of 171, was Ballygunge. Private weather forecasting service AccuWeather said the city’s AQI was 350 on Thursday evening.
Fog now exists in the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh-Bihar belt and it could be floating into Kolkata soon, said weathermen. “Often in winter, fog from north India floats into south Bengal and Kolkata, triggering smog due to high pollution. Since pollution levels are already high, we may experience more smog soon. But on Thursday, Kolkata didn’t have very dense fog,” said Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) director G K Das.
Meanwhile, Kolkata is set to remain chilly till the weekend when the mercury is expected to rise. Minimum temperature could rise marginally to 13°C on Friday. “Over the weekend, it could slide up to 15°C-16°C due to an approaching western disturbance. It is set to form by Saturday and will trigger north-south low-pressure trough across Bihar and Chhattisgarh. It will be aided by moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal even as the chilly northwesterly wind gets cut off. Another trough is set to form across Rajasthan and Bengal, which will contribute to the cloudy weather. These will combine to push the mercury up and keep the city cloudy,” said Das.
The Met office has not ruled out possibility of light rain in the city over the weekend.