A significant positive correlation was observed between the prominent pollutants PM2.5, PM10, NO2, NH3, and CO with AQI, i.e., 0.96, 0.95, 0.86, 0.70, and 0.70 respectively in site 3 as shown in Fig. 5 (c). This implies the studied pollutants had a great impact on air quality among monitoring station of Jadavpur, Kolkata, whereas ozone shows a negative correlation with AQI (− 0.25), and other studied pollutants i.e., PM2.5 (− 0.32), PM10 (− 0.36), NO2 (− 0.48), NH3 (− 0.50), and CO (− 0.35). This indicates mean O3 concentration will significantly increase with a decrease in the mean AQI, PM2.5, PM10, NO2, NH3, and CO concentrations.