Several areas across city in deep red zone

The air quality index (AQI) at a host of monitoring stations in Delhi touched 500the highest possible reading on India's pollution meters at various points on Friday, underlining the scale and spread of the national capital's extant bad air crisis.

- Snehil Sinha

By 4pm, when the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) marks its official pollution readings, the AQI was above 490 at eight stations, with Okhla Phase 2 topping the morbid chart with a reading of 499, closely followed by Siri Fort (498).

To be sure, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee's (DPCC) station at Anand Vihar, usually one of Delhi's most polluted neighbourhoods, was out of order for much of Friday.

Eight stations recorded AQIS between 480 and 490, including Wazirpur (489), New Moti Bagh (488) and Mandir Marg (486).

Delhi first identified 13 pollution hot spots in 2018, focussing mitigation measures in neighbourhoods that consistently threw up levels of PM2.5 above the city's average.

These included Anand Vihar, Mundka, Wazirpur, Jahangirpuri, RK Puram, Rohini, Punjabi Bagh, Okhla, Bawana, Vivek Vihar.