Delhi’s average air quality, on Tuesday, turned “poor” once again with the pollution index values recording above the 200 mark.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi’s average Air Quality Index (AQI) on Tuesday was recorded at 234 at 4 pm, based on an average of past 24 hours.

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According to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), the city’s air quality is likely to be in the “Poor” category from Wednesday to Friday. Prominent pollutants in the city’s air continued to be particulate matter (PM) 2.5, while the pollution reading was based on observations recorded from 38 air monitoring stations across the city.

As regards the cities adjoining the national capital, Faridabad had the best air quality with the ‘satisfactory’ category with index values below 100. Ghaziabad and Noida’s AQI levels were in the ‘moderate’ zone, with the level under 200, and that of Gurugram reeled under the ‘very poor’ mark.

According to the CPCB, the AQI level between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, between 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’ and index values recorded above 400 mark are considered ‘severe’.

Meanwhile, curbs enforced under the anti-pollution Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stages I and II remained in place across the city with the concerned agencies intensifying their actions under these two stages of the same. On December 5, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) revoked GRAP IV and III after the directions from the Supreme Court in the wake of the downward trend in the AQI levels. However, the sub-committee can again invoke stages III and IV if the pollution witnesses a spike and goes past the 350 to 400 mark.