NAGPUR: Taking a much-needed step towards improving the city’s deteriorating air quality, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) is setting up four new air monitoring stations in the city. On Tuesday, one of the new stations installed at Wadi was inaugurated.
MPCB officials said the air quality monitoring station has been installed at Sant Gajanan Maharaj temple at Wadi. “At this location, particulate matter (PM) 2.5, PM10 and oxides of sulphur and nitrogen will be monitored. The operation and maintenance of this station will be carried out by Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT),” said Anand Kare, regional officer, MPCB, Nagpur.
Wadi is also now a part of the core city, said sub-regional officer AN Katole, adding, “We will be ensuring that the ambient air quality of Wadi is checked be in line with the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP). The station at Wadi will be operated manually.”
As reported by TOI earlier, the board is already monitoring NAMP stations at Civil Lines, MIDC Hingna, and Institution of Engineers on North Ambazari Road. “Currently, the city has only one continuous air quality monitoring station at Civil Lines,” said officials.
In a positive development for the city, the three new monitoring stations to be set up will also be continuous air quality monitoring stations. “The locations will be Nagpur Municipal Corporation office at Mahal, VNIT campus in Bajaj Nagar and Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT) on Amravati Road. The work of installing these stations has begun and we are expecting them to be functional in a few months,” added officials.
In March this year, TOI was the first to report that the city will get new monitoring stations. Officials informed that the cost of one continuous air quality monitoring station is around Rs2.5 crore. “These stations have been approved and funded by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which will also appoint a private operator for operation and maintenance of the stations. With this, we are hoping to get more reliable data on city’s air quality,” said officials.
At present, CPCB has been calculating city’s air quality index (AQI) based on data from only one station at Civil Lines, which, environment experts say would never bring the real picture to the fore.
Nagpur is one of the non-attainment cities of the country, and does not meet the prescribed air quality standards set by the Union environment ministry. The fact that it is surrounded by coal-fired power plants and a large number of industries makes the situation worse.
