Air pollution: NCR towns don't have information on many sources

NEW DELHI: IIT Delhi started providing Central Pollution Control Board with pollution projections and possible measures Delhi’s civic bodies could undertake every fortnight from September. These so-called ‘biweekly plans’ , however, pertained only to the capital because gaps in emissions inventory data from various sources prevented the extension of the exercise to most other NCR cities.

IIT Delhi, has therefore, requested CPCB to set up an emissions inventory cell to provide accurate and updated data related to each source of pollution across NCR.

Harsha Kota, assistant professor of civil engineering at IIT Delhi, who specialises in developing air quality models, explained that the plans forecast the levels of pollution in the coming fortnight and the steps to be taken to tackle the problem. However, she told TOI, “If we don’t have the complete data from the emissions inventory, we will be unable to analyse information effectively or forecast the top contributing source for the fortnight.”

IIT Delhi currently uses the emissions inventory data of the Union ministry of earth sciences. But to provide CPCB with plans for NCR cities every fortnight, Kota said a dedicated cell was necessary to fill the gaps in existing information. “The biweekly forecasts are in their first year, and the learnings from this can be utilised to make the preventive system more robust,” Kota said.

Plans will be made for Sonipat and Faridabad in Haryana and Ghaziabad in UP, but Mukesh Khare, professor at IIT-D, told TOI that the aim was to eventually provide bi-weekly plans for seven cities in Punjab as well. “The biweekly plans state very clearly what steps need to be taken to curb pollution of each type. We need to improve the coordination among the agencies involved. Once we have better data, we can provide accurate forecasts for Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad and other NCR locations,” said Khare.

CPCB officials said it would take some time to set up a dedicated data cell. “The bi-weekly plan for Delhi already covers nearby locations in NCR, but we can certainly expand on this,” an official said. CPCB also intends to use its teams on the ground to provide inputs to IIT-D for the biweekly plans. “We are working on how this can be incorporated in the whole exercise,” the official added.

In the bi-weekly plan for Delhi for November 1 to 15, IIT-D had identified unpaved roads as a major pollution source in the seven critical pollution areas of Mayapuri, Wazirpur and Okhla in Delhi, Udyog Vihar in Gurugram, Sahibabad in Ghaziabad and two areas in Faridabad.