Chennai: On Deepavali day several parts of Greater Chennai choked due to smoke while a thick blanket of smog over South Chennai affected flight and train traffic right up to Thursday morning.
With smoke and air pollution due to bursting of crackers increasing anywhere between twice and tenfold higher than permissible limits, train traffic was also slowed down during morning hours. The city's arterial roads also saw fewer vehicles plying till Thursday noon.
Releasing the air ambient quality report on Thursday, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board said ambient air quality surveys and noise level surveys were taken in five places in Chennai — Triplicane, Besant Nagar, Nungambakkam, Sowcarpet and T.Nagar, to monitor the impact of Deepavali celebrations on air quality and all the samples were higher than the permissible levels.
Air ambient survey results of the year 2017 were found to be higher than those of 2016 with respect to Particulate Matter (PM10) parameter.
The PM 10 results ranged from 47 to 70 ?g / m3 on a pre -Deepavali day (October 12) and ranged from 387 to 777 ?g / m3 on Deepavali day, while the limit should have been 100 ?g / m3, TNPC said in its report.
Gaseous pollutants, namely SO2 and NO2, were, however, found to be well within the prescribed standard (80 ?g / m3) on both the days surveyed. Ambient noise level ranged from 62 to 71 dB(A) during pre-Deepavali day (October 12) while it ranged from 68 to 80dB(A) during Deepavali day.
The acceptable limit is 45 to 55 dB(A) for residential and 55 to 65dB(A) for commercial areas. Further, due absence of rain, there was no dispersion of particulate matter pollutant. Hence higher value of PM10 was observed. The survey was conducted as per the guidelines of Central Pollution Control Board and the directions of Supreme Court, the report said.
Individual organisations monitoring air quality said that the capital Chennai recorded one of the highest levels of air pollution across India while parts of south Chennai including IIT, Alandur and Manali recorded high level of toxic gases. “Definitely aged residents and children suffered the pollution and the poor quality of air in Chennai. It’s time to think about the alarming pollution levels and bring down the habit of bursting crackers”, environmentalist Nithayanand Jayaraman said.
According to Chennai airport sources, at least 23 flights were delayed in the City airport due to the smog on Deepavali night. While it is usual for flights to be delayed due to poor visibility caused by excess smoke during Bhogi, this is the first time in several years that flights were delayed during Deepvali.
Flight operations were affected between 10 pm on Wednesday and 2 am on Thursday. A GoAir flight from Hyderabad with 148 passengers, which was supposed to land at the City airport by 10.30 pm was diverted to Bengaluru and reached the city only by 2.30 am. International flights to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Hong Kong were delayed apart from the domestic flights.
Operations were restored around 2.30 am, airport sources said.
