Three CAAQMS in city still not providing air quality data even after over a year
| Date :15-Feb-2023 |
By Kaushik Bhattacharya
The three newly-installed Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS), which were supposed to start functioning in December 2021, are still not providing data of city’s air quality even after more than a year.
Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) got a fund of Rs 10 crore under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) from the Central Government to improve the air quality of the city. MPCB utilised the fund to install three new CAAQMS at three different localities to continuously monitor the air quality.
The process of vendor selection to run and maintain the stations was done quickly in the month of October 2021. However, the supply of three machines to MPCB took time, delaying the installation of the machines.
After the installation of machines, the data stabilisation process should take a few days. Despite all formalities to run the equipment done in the month of March, 2022, the data collection and its uploading on Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB’s) website has yet not started. There is only one CAAQMS in city in Civil Lines area, providing 24x7 air quality data of Nagpur to CPCB website. The new CAAQMS is still not providing its data to the website.
“The three CAAQMS had started functioning and were providing data to MPCB. But the real-time data to CPCB website has still not started. The approval from CPCB has not yet been provided to us to share it with the website,” Umakant Bhadule, Sub Regional Officer (SRO), Nagpur city, MPCB told ‘The Hitavada’.
“Those who want to see the data, they can get it by visiting the stations manually,” said the SRO, adding that, “according to the CAAQMS Protocol for Data Communication, the real-time data should be uploaded every 15 minutes on the CPCB portal and the data should be available to the user every time”. The three CAAQMS have been installed at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT) and Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) Town Hall in Mahal.
There are five Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (AAQMS) in the city - at MIDC Hingna, Institute of Engineers, Udyog Bhavan in Civil Lines, Wadi and Kamptee. These AAQMS are providing air quality data twice a week. Nagpur is one of the non-attainment cities in the country, and does not meet the prescribed air quality standards set by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
The fact that it is surrounded by coal-fired power plants and a large number of industries makes the situation worse. In Maharashtra, 18 cities, including Nagpur, are under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), where air quality levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 have crossed national safety standards. Authorities are planning measures to ensure 20 to 30 per cent reduction in pollution levels in the next five years. The setting up of new CAAQMS is seen as an initiative by the MPCB to provide accurate real-time data of pollution levels to implement policies strictly. However, this type of delay in real-time data gathering of air quality will hinder achievement of the target.