New Delhi, Feb. 24 -- Earlier this week, Delhi expanded its air quality monitoring network, but early numbers analysed by HT suggest that data from the six new stations may alter the city's pollution calculations only marginally - at least for now. Data from the six ambient air quality monitoring stations - inaugurated on February 9 by Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta - went live on the Delhi Pollution Control Committee website on Monday morning, expanding the Capital's monitoring network to 46 stations. The six new stations have been set up at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), SPMSPC Talkatora Garden, the Commonwealth Games Sports Complex, Delhi Cantonment, and Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT) West Campus. On April 26, HT had reported that these locations are relatively greener and less traffic-heavy compared to several existing monitoring sites - effectively adding relatively cleaner stations to the city's network, which may pull down the citywide average AQI. For the analysis, HT looked at hourly data from 4pm to 6pm on Monday from these stations to assess how they might influence Delhi's average AQI when fully integrated. Calculations showed the new stations altered the city's average, but by just one point during this period. Initially, the portal shared real-time readings updated every 15 minutes. From 4pm onwards, it began displaying hourly averages of PM2.5 and PM10 - the two pollutants that drive Delhi's AQI on most days - along with other parameters. The average hourly AQI for the 40 existing stations stood at 125, 115, and 109 in the hours ending 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm respectively. When including the new stations, the averages were 126, 114, and 108 for 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm respectively - bringing out a net change of merely one point. A station-wise breakdown revealed variation. At 4pm, when only the JNU station was reporting, its AQI of 135 exceeded the 40-station average of 125. By 5pm, when all six were reporting, four stations recorded lower AQIs than the average of the older ones. By 6pm, all but the Akshardham station showed lower readings than the 40-station average. Experts said to assess whether the six new stations will reduce the overall AQI or increase it, a larger data set is required....