NAQI monitoring stations at the IGI airport and Civil Lines have not been operational since July 10. Also, the ITO station remains dead since inception. Other monitoring stations at Anand Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, RK Puram, and Mandir Marg continue to show data recorded on December 14.
Absolute values of pollutants point towards a marginal improvement in Delhi’s air quality over the past few days. But in the absence of area-wise NAQI values, it is difficult to ascertain any change in overall air quality. The NAQI was developed by Kanpur and provides a single value to determine quality of air over a region.
The system was handled by IIT Kanpur initially, but was transferred to the central government in July this year. The system requires very less human intervention and officials at the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have already been trained to work on it.
At a time when state government is focusing all its energy on improving air quality in the region, a paralyzed NAQI network will fail to deliver key data on air pollution in Delhi. A celebrated move upon its launch in April, the NAQI has now been reduced to a seldom used tool.
(Featured Image Credit: slate.com)