Lahore’s AQI improves 15pc, claims EP&CCD

Punjab government has claimed a 15pc improvement in Lahore's air quality during the first year of its real-time monitoring programme,

LAHORE:  Punjab government has claimed a 15pc improvement in Lahore’s air quality during the first year of its real-time monitoring programme, with the city’s peak Air Quality Index (AQI) falling 28pc in October 2026 compared to the same month last year.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Environment Protection and Climate Change Department (EPCCD) said the improvement was recorded across six major air pollutants, including fine particulate matter (PM2.5), while Lahore experienced no days in the hazardous AQI category, against four such days in October 2025.

The department said the findings were based on the first full year of real-time air quality monitoring and publicly available ground-based measurements, providing a basis for assessing the impact of pollution control measures.
According to the EPCCD, Punjab’s real-time air quality portal published its first reading on October 1, 2025, with an initial network of 30 regulatory-grade monitoring stations. The network has since expanded to 59 stations, measuring six air pollutants and seven meteorological parameters. The government plans to increase the number to 100 during the 2025-26 period.
The department said the monitoring network had strengthened the government’s ability to assess air pollution through ground-based measurements rather than relying solely on low-cost sensors and satellite-based models.

It also cited meteorological data to support its assessment, saying Lahore received 50pc less rainfall in October 2026 than in October 2025, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

On the atmospheric boundary layer, which determines how pollutants disperse in the air, the department referred to SUPARCO measurements taken through a ceilometer in Lahore. These showed an increase of only 10 metres in the minimum mixing layer height during the comparison period, against a 25-metre increase cited by the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI).

The EPCCD questioned the reliability of the latter assessment, arguing that ground-based instruments were more suitable for evaluating local pollution-control measures. It also referred to research published in January 2026, which identified biases of 200 to 500 metres in ERA5 reanalysis data over the monsoon region.