Chandrapur city in Maharashtra has failed to achieve the annual target allotted by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to reduce the PM10 level for improving the air quality in the financial year 2021-22. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, mentioned this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha recently. National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which was adopted by the Government of India to improve the air quality of 131 non-attainment cities in the country, is monitoring the improvement of air quality every year. In the Rajya Sabha, the Ministry released the data for the year 2021-22.

As per the data shared by MoEF&CC, Chandrapur city that comes under 131 non-attainment cities list of NCAP had the target to improve PM10 level by 5 u/m3 in the year 2021-22. Whereas the air quality of the city degraded by -13 u/m3 and the average PM10 level has crossed 103 u/m3. In contrast, Amravati city reported improvement in air quality in 2021-22. Amravati also had the target to improve the air quality by 5 ug/m3 and the city reduced the PM10 level by 22 u/m3. Nagpur city which comes in 49 cities’ list of XV Finance Commission Air Quality Grant of NCAP, also reported highest number of poor air quality days in Maharashtra. Nagpur city reported the highest 16 number of days of PM10 level above 200 ug/m3 in 2021-22 in the state.

The average PM10 level of Nagpur city in 2021-22 was 67 ug/m3 and the city witnessed the air quality below 200 ug/m3 for 349 days. Whereas, Aurangabad and Pune experienced the PM10 level above 200 for 10 days in the said year. Nashik reported the PM10 level above 200 ug/m3 only for two days followed by Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Badlapur and Thane with 7 days. As per the written statement by the Minister, PM10 level of Mumbai in the year 2021-22 was 102 ug/m3 and showed improvement of 34% with respect to base year 2017-18. In the statement, the minister also stated about the measures that the ministry had taken to improve air quality in all non-attainment cities. It includes adoption of BS-VI vehicles; improvement of public transport like electric busses; metro rail; ban on 10-year-old diesel vehicles; faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles etc. Whereas the performance of Chandrapur and Nagpur cities in air quality improvement giving a proof that the city administration has failed to adopt the measures properly as per the guidelines of the MoEF&CC.