Mumbai, Nov 13 (IANS) The Bombay High Court orders and BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation pleas apparently went unheeded as Mumbai recorded a ‘poor’ air quality index (AQI) of 118 on Monday, a day after Diwali, as per official data.
The current PM2.5 level in Mumbai was 2.9 times higher than the recommended limits of the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s 24-hour air quality guidelines value, according to the readings at 6 a.m.
The high court and BMC had last week mandated bursting of firecrackers for only two hours during Diwali festival — from 8-10 p.m. — but this remained ignored in most parts of the city on Sunday and early Monday.
In many areas, Diwali revellers started lighting up all types of firecrackers from dusk and continued till the early hours of Monday.
Some of the worst-hit areas of the city with ‘poor’ AQI included Deonar (157), Bandra East (155), Nerul and Powai (151 each), Bandra Kurla Complex (139), Sion (134), Borivali East and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (127 each), Juhu (124), Vile Parle West (122), Mahape and Worli’s Siddharth Nagar (112 each), Bhandup West and Bandra West (107 each), and Malad (105).
November has seen only one day ‘moderate’, nine days ‘poor’, and two days of ‘unhealthy’ AQI levels till date, amidst a slew of measures by the civic administration, the state government and even a rap from the high court, in a desperate bid to control the air pollution levels in the country’s commercial capital post-monsoon.
–IANS
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