Hyderabad wakes up to a layer of smog, IMD links it to construction activity

Hyderabad faces dense smog linked to construction and traffic, with pollution levels significantly exceeding safe limits.

Hyderabad woke up to a bright sunny day with a cloud of fog enveloping the city affecting visibility on Saturday (March 7, 2026) morning. Even at 9.30 a.m, parts of the city were covered in a dense smog including areas like Ameerpet, Sanathnagar, Balanagar, Madhapur and other western parts of the city.

“There is considerable construction activity taking place in the city and vehicular movement has also increased leading to higher pollution. Changing wind patterns has also affected the formation of smog over the city,” said Dharma Raju, a scientist at India Meteorological Department in Hyderabad. The northern wind speed was 11.2 km per hour at 9.30 a.m.

The Telangana Pollution Control Board’s Sanathnagar pollution observatory was not functioning from 6 a.m. creating a gap in information and understanding about the nature of smog.

The other pollution observatory of Pashamylaram recorded 173µg/m³ of PM 2.5, that is more than three times the base level of 50µg/m³. The National Air Quality Index lists the level as ‘moderate’ and can cause ‘breathing discomfort to the people with lungs, asthma and heart diseases’.

The high pollution level has led to Hyderabad getting ranked 61st globally as the most polluted cities according to crowd-sourced information hosted on AQI that maps pollution across the cities. At 9.30 a.m. the AQI monitor showed air quality index at 186 as the PM 2.5 averaged 107 µg/m³ and PM10 at 125 µg/m³.