Delhi wants clearer picture of fight ahead as pollution season nears

NEW DELHI: Delhi and its neighbours appear to be better equipped than ever before to fight air pollution. The number of air quality monitoring stations in the National Capital Region has more than doubled compared with last year, a Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) official told TOI on Monday.

“This year, we have 113 monitoring points in NCR, up from 54 in 2018. This is helping us get a comprehensive picture.We can also pinpoint the causes of pollution in specific areas,” the official said.
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Beijing, often seen as a reference point by experts in green fight, in contrast, has between 35 and 40 automatic monitoring sites across the city.
Data from these fixed-automatic stations — costing around Rs 1.2 crore each with 10% yearly operation and maintenance expenses — is allowing CPCB’s air quality index for NCR to accurately reflect the extent of pollution in the region. Delhi alone has 48 stations run by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) and CPCB.
“In Haryana, there are 19 such stations, of which three are in Gurugram and four in Faridabad. In Uttar Pradesh, there are 35, including eight in Ghaziabad and 12 in Noida and Greater Noida. In Rajasthan (areas under NCR only), there are 11,” the CPCB official said.
Twenty nine more stations are in the works and will take the total number in NCR to 142. These observation points collect real-time data of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, ammonia, benzene as also different weather parameters. They have been installed around residential and industrial areas, hospitals, schools, colleges and stadiums — to give a true representative character of air pollution.
“As per international guidelines, the correct way to know one index for a city air quality is to consider different micro-environments. For a typical metro city, commercial, urban complex, sub-urban, residential, industrial, road sides and traffic junctions are the micro-environments that should be covered in the monitoring network,” a World Meteorological Organisation report recently stated.
The real-time pollution figures from these stations in the city are available on DPCC, SAFAR, CPCB and the respective state pollution control board websites. CPCB uses this data to calculate the overall AQI for these locations, which is then displayed on its website.
Experts have hailed the coordinated efforts of the agencies. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, Centre for Science and Environment, told TOI: “The impressive expansion of real-time monitoring network across land uses in Delhi is an opportunity to track trends over time and across hotspots, refine action for impact, and alert people daily for health protection. Such granular real-time data allows more advanced air quality and health assessment.”
Using the readings of the newly installed stations, a task force set up by CPCB had last year identified pollution hotspots and directed municipal corporations and pollution bodies to take focused action.
CPCB had identified 15 highly polluted areas in Delhi and six in neighbouring areas.