Mumbai 4th most polluted city in world, air quality index 165: US group

A day after Dussehra, Mumbai woke up to a blanket of haze on Wednesday, with the city ranking fourth among the world’s most polluted cities and recording an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 165, according to IQAir, a US-based air quality monitoring organisation. The reading also made Mumbai the most polluted city in India at the time.

Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo topped the global list with an AQI of 201, followed by Lahore in Pakistan at 190 and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia at 180. Mumbai ranked ahead of Delhi, which recorded an AQI of 164. The IQAir readings identified PM2.5, fine particulate matter that can penetrate deep into the lungs, as one of the prominent pollutants in Mumbai.

The assessment was based on readings from six monitoring stations, including the US Consulate General in Mumbai. However, the findings differed sharply from those of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which recorded an AQI of 113 for Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon.

Among the 23 active monitoring stations, Colaba recorded the highest AQI at 160, followed by Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) at 150 and Kherwadi in Bandra East at 142. Civic officials attributed the discrepancy to differences in the methodologies used by IQAir and Indian government agencies.