New Delhi, Nov 25 ( UNI ) The air quality in the national capital continued to remain in the ‘very poor’ category on Thursday, as the, air quality Index (AQI) stood at 362 according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

The air quality Index (AQI) on Wednesday was recorded at 328.

According to the SAFAR bulletin, the effective farm fire count has reduced to 432 and its contribution to Delhi’s PM 2.5 on Thursday is 2 percent.

The concentration of PM 2.5 and PM 10 stood at 201, in the ‘very poor’ and 337 in the ‘poor’ category respectively around 11 am, as per the agency.

Earlier the agency said from November 27 onwards local surface winds are likely to increase which will result in improvement of air quality.

Several areas in the national capital including ITO, Lodhi Road, and Mathura Road recorded air quality in the ‘very poor’ category with an AQI of 411, 309, and 346 while the AQI at Anand Vihar and Jahangirpuri were in the ‘severe’ category with an AQI 436and 463 respectively.

According to data from Central Pollution Control Board the Air Quality Index in the neighbouring parts of Delhi, also was in the ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ category including Faridabad (at 438), Ghaziabad (314), Gurugram (334) and Noida (414).

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 is satisfactory, between 101 and 200 is moderate, 201 and 300 is poor, 301 and 400 is very poor, while AQI between 401 and 500 is severe.

Meanwhile the Delhi government on Wednesday said that schools, colleges and educational institutions in the national capital will reopen from Monday, November 29 onwards.

“Schools, colleges and educational institutions will be allowed to reopen in the city. Work from home in government offices will end on November 29, but we request people to use public transport” Delhi Environment minister Gopal Rai said on Wednesday.

He said that CNG and electric trucks carrying non essential items will be allowed to enter Delhi from November 27 onwards. The ban on entry of diesel and petrol trucks carrying non essential items will continue till December 3.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) the sky will remain clear with the minimum and maximum temperature likely to hover around 10 and 28 degree Celsius respectively.

“The relative humidity at 0830hrs in the morning stood at 95 percent,” IMD said.

New Delhi, Nov 25 : India recorded 9,119 new cases of COVID-19 and 396 more fatalities during the past 24 hours, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in it’s latest update on Thursday.

With the addition of these new cases the cumalative case tally has reached 34,544,882.

The overall death toll from the disease has reached 466,980. The past 24 hours saw 10,264 recoveries nationwide.

The country currently has 109,940 active cases. Yesterday 90,27,638 more vaccines were administered nationwide taking the overall vaccination tally to 119,38,44,741.

More than 33.96 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.

A total of 11,50,538 tests were conducted yesterday.

Wednesday saw 9,281 new coronavirus cases being reported, along with 437 fatalities.

New Delhi, Nov 25: Prime Minister Narendra Modi would lay the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar, Gautam Buddha Nagar of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday at 1 pm.

“The development of the airport is in line with the vision of the Prime Minister towards boosting connectivity and creating a future-ready aviation sector,” the official statement said.

“This airport will be the second international airport to come up in Delhi NCR and will help de-congest the IGI Airport,” it added.

Once this airport becomes functional, Uttar Pradesh will become the only state in India to have five international airports.

It is strategically located and will serve the people of cities including Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Agra, Faridabad and neighbouring areas, it will bring new opportunities for numerous enterprises, besides creating tremendous employment opportunities.

The statement said the airport will be the logistics gateway of northern India and due to its scale and capacity, the airport will be a game changer for UP.

For the first time, an airport in India has been conceptualised with an integrated multi modal cargo hub, with a focus on reducing the total cost and time for logistics.

The dedicated cargo terminal will have a capacity of 20 lakh metric tonnes, which will be expanded to 80 lakh metric tonnes in the future.

“Through facilitating seamless movement of industrial products, the airport will play a crucial role in helping the region attract huge investments, boost rapid industrial growth, and enable reach of local products to national and international markets,” the statement said.

“All major nearby roads and highways like the Yamuna Expressway, Western Peripheral Expressway, Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and others will be connected to the airport. The airport will also be linked to the planned Delhi-Varanasi High Speed Rail, enabling the journey between Delhi and airport in only 21 minutes,” it said.

The development of the first phase of the airport is being done with a cost of over Rs 10,050 crores.

“Spread over more than 1300 hectares of land, the completed first phase of the airport will have a capacity to serve around 1.2 crore passengers a year and work on it is scheduled to be completed by 2024,” the official statement said.

Sitapur, Nov 25 : In view of the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will address booth presidents in Sitapur on Thursday so as to impart election management skills to the BJP workers.

According to the information given by the state BJP unit, Rajnath Singh will reach Sitapur at 1.30 pm to participate in the booth convention of the Awadh region.

The Booth convention is starting from Sitapur in the Avadh region. According to Singh’s schedule, he will reach Sitapur during the afternoon. He will also be present in the booth presidents’ conference for about one and a half hours and will interact with the party workers.

The party’s State President Swatantra Dev Singh and Deputy Chief Minister of the State Dr. Dinesh Sharma, and other party leaders too will be present on the occasion.

New Delhi, Nov 24: The prices of petrol and diesel remained unchanged for the 20th day in a row on Wednesday.

The fuel prices had come down sharply on November 4, 2021, after the Centre announced reduction in excise duties on petrol and diesel by Rs five and Rs ten respectively.

In the national capital a litre of petrol costs Rs 103.97, Rs 104.67 in Kolkata, Rs 109.98 in Mumbai and Rs 101.40 in Chennai.

Similarly, a litre of diesel is available at Rs 86.67 in New Delhi, Rs 89.79 in Kolkata, Rs 94.14 in Mumbai and Rs 91.43 in Chennai.

After the Centre cut the excise duties, most state governments and union territories too reduced Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel, providing much relief to the common man.

Some states, mostly non BJP- ruled, are yet to undertake any reduction in VAT on motor fuels.

However, Punjab and Rajasthan have reduced the taxes from their side.

Prices of diesel and petrol were rising for the last few days across the country, breaching all previous records but the Centre’s announcement to cut the excise duties gave relief to people using the two motor fuels. The rise in the fuel prices in the domestic market was mainly attributed to global upsurge in crude oil prices