06
metro
hindustantimes
Chilly Thursday, expect some respite from Sunday
H INDUSTAN T IMES , NEW DEL H I FRIDAY, JANUARY 2 0, 20 1 7
LENSSPEAK n
CHANGING WINDS Min temperature was 6°C; winter far from over HT Correspondent n
htreporters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI:Thursday was a chilly
dayintheCapitalwith minimum temperature settling at 6.4 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal, with early morning fog disrupted rail services. It was bright and sunny the rest of the day and maximum temperature was 21.3 degrees Celsius, a notch above the normal, a Met official said. “From Sunday, the maximum temperature is expected to rise a bit. However, winter is far from over in the city,” said a senior Met official. While the city has been experiencing chilly winds from north over the past three days, the wind direction has now changed with warmer breeze coming from Punjab, Haryana, he said. In the morning, fog delayed 35 Delhi-bound trains. Twenty three were rescheduled, according to a senior railway official. Visibility at 5.30am at Safdarjung was 1,200 metres. It dropped
to 600 metres at 8.30am, and later improved to 1,500 metres. At Palam, visibility was 600 metres at 5.30am. Three hours later, it dropped to below 50 metres. It improved to 1,000 metres at 11.30am, the official said. Humidity oscillated between 100% and 55%. The weatherman has forecast partly cloudy skies for Friday with the likelihood of shallow to moderate fog in the morning. “Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 20 degrees Celsius and 6 degrees Celsius, respectively, tomorrow.” On Wednesday, maximum and minimum temperatures were 19.1 degrees Celsius and 4.2 degrees Celsius, respectively. AIR TO BE SLIGHTLY MORE POLLUTED TODAY Finer PM2.5 particles in the air, more harmful than PM10, will go up slightly to “very poor” level on Friday, according to the weather forecast. Forecasts say it will deterio-
rate to 126 μg/m3. At this level, the response system calls for measuressuchashikingparking fees by up to 4%, banning diesel generator sets and increasing the frequency of Metro trains. Pollution advisory says people with existing heart or lung diseases must avoid exertion. On Thursday, air quality oscillated between “moderate” and “very poor” levels. The Air Quality Index was 300, which falls in the “very poor” category. The 24-hour rolling average of PM10 and PM2.5, however, clocked 215 μg/m3 and 120 μg/ m3, according to the ministry of earth science’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). These fall under “moderate” and “poor” categories. The permissible levels of PM10 and PM2.5 are 100 μg/m3 and 60 μg/m3, respectively. Over the past few days, air quality has hovered around “moderate” and “very poor” levels, though it turned “severe” for one day.
Govt school students hit the roads to assess city’s pollution Soumya Pillai n
soumya.pillai@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: A group of 30 middle
school students hit the roads of south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar with potable air quality monitors and censors, recording the pollution levels and assessing the causes. Clean Asia in partnership with the US Embassy and Delhi government held a pollution sensitisation programme at Vasant Vihar’s Sarvodaya Vidyalaya. Thetwo-dayworkshop,which started on Wednesday, aimed at creating awareness among students on the sources of pollution in the city and how it can affect different categories of people. On Thursday, the students walked through the CBI colony, andtook a round of the Priya shopping complex and saw how the levels
of particulate matter fluctuated at different spots. “We learnt how small actions such as not switching off the ignition of our cars in traffic jams and throwing garbage in the open can be harmful for us and people around us,” said Class-6 student Rashi Maurya. This was the last leg of the workshops, which started in December, and covered two other schools—Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Mansarovar Garden. On day-1, students were told about the different sources of pollution and the pollutants which are likely to dominate in an area because of the surroundings. The selected students also conducted a neighbourhood
walk and noted how factors such as open cooking, traffic movement and construction activities can contribute to pollution levels. “We have never done such workshopswithsuchyoungchildren but it was amazing to see how interested and receptive they were. At the end, we also gave projects to children and the results of these will be submitted to the Delhi government and the US embassy in February,” said air quality researcher Sohana Debrama, who conducted the workshop. The students said they wanted to educate other students, parents and neighbours on how they can reduce pollution emissions. Principal Kavita Rana said the school will encourage students in spreading awareness.
On a cycle rickshaw that doubles up as a bed, a man in Old Delhi’s Daryaganj curls up underneath a blanket. AMAL KS/HT
n
As rotis are rolled out for dinner, kids and women in Motia Khan sit around a meagre kitchen fire to keep warm. AMAL KS/HT
LEFT OUT IN THE COLD
As thousands of homeless people battle an ice blast of a winter with hardly anything but worn out blankets and measly camp fires, HT’s lens men capture their ordeal on Delhi’s roads. n
n
Pavement dwellers huddle around a fire near Yamuna Bank. AMAL KS/HT
A homeless man sits wrapped in a blanket near Yamuna Bazar. VIPIN KUMAR/HT