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The vehicular pollution has increased substantially in recent times. Indian mega-cities like Delhi which has distinctly been credited with dangerously high vehicular pollution levels. The present study has been undertaken aiming at pollution estimation for different transport corridors of Delhi city with a view to analysing the changing traffic composition trends and its impact on the levels of ambient air pollutants. From the study, it was found that Ring road (Safdarjung) had the highest concentration of CO and PM10 as 3,066 and 422 μg/m3 while Auchandi Road bore the lowest concentration of the same as 193 and 23 μg/m3. Maximum values of 363 μg/m3 of NOx at Maa Anandmayi Marg, 542 μg/m3 of PM2.5 at ISBT Flyover and 42 μg/m3 of SOX at Nizamuddin Bridge were reported in comparison to minimum values as 24 μg/m3 at Pusa Road, 53 μg/m3 at Sansad Marg and 2 μg/m3 at Auchandi Road respectively.

Urban traffic emission is one of the grievous problems faced by people in urban centres of developing countries like India. Inspite of bad air quality, people are forced to live in air-polluted areas of megacities like Delhi. The present study is an effort to analyse the air quality of some selected areas along major urban transport corridors in Delhi. On the basis of land-use pattern, five locations, i.e., Rithala, Pitampura, Kashmiri Gate, Jhilmil, and Panchsheel Enclave were selected to conduct the research study. The study included the monitoring of CO, NOx, SO2 and PM at all the identified locations for 12 hrs (8:00 to 20:00). The monitored data of each location was used to estimate the composite air quality index (CAQI). The highest value of CAQI was observed at Jhilmil (140) followed by Kashmiri Gate (127), Pitampura (109), Rithala (104) and Panchsheel Encalve (103). Upon comparing the CAQI of all the selected locations with the rating scale of air quality index, it was found that all the selected locations were under severe air pollution condition, a clear representative of the unhealthy condition of people residing in these particular areas.