Residents heave a sigh of relief as AQI comes down to 91

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 17

Residents in the city today heaved a sigh of relief as they witnessed a bright and sunny morning today. As the cold wave is yet to tighten its grip in this part of the region, it was respite from pollution levels, which had made lives of people miserable in the past month.

As per the weather report released by the Government of India, the air quality index (AQI) in the city was recorded at 91 at 8.45 pm today, which comes in “satisfactory” category. Though it was holiday in educational institutes, the campus of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) was abuzz as students were seen studying while many others were strolling and basking in the sun.

Hargunjeet, a PAU student, said, “After a long time the city has witnessed bright weather. Though PAU campus is considered less polluted, it was all smoggy and visibility was also poor during last month.”

Residents looked relieved to see a clear sky. They felt that last one month was too bad for them as they inhaled poor quality air.

“We read about poor quality air in different sections of media. On October 16, the AQI was around 215 while on November 3 it increased to 309, which came down again in the second week of November. The weather was not only poor, but irritating too. As we are senior citizens, so we tried stay indoors,” said Surjan Singh, a septaugenarian.