Delhi to Get 20 New Air Pollution Monitoring Stations

air pollution monitoring stations

By October 2017, India’s national capital Delhi will have 20 new air pollution monitoring stations. This was announced by the Delhi government’s Environment and Forest Department recently after a meeting held with Delhi Pollution Control Committee convened by Delhi environment minister Imran Hussain. At present, Delhi has 28 monitoring stations. Out of the 28 monitoring stations that we have now, Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) runs 4, Meteorological department 8, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) runs 10 and SAFAR, that falls under the Ministry of Earth Sciences maintains the rest of the stations.

Issue of Work Order

Addition of 20 new stations will definitely provide a better idea to monitor and estimate the level of pollution in the capital and take the necessary measures to reduce it. Considering the fact that the peak pollution time in Delhi is during Diwali and Winter, October is considered to be the ideal month for setting up the ambient air quality monitoring stations. The officials of Environment and Forest Department of Delhi government said that the work order for setting up the stations would be issued soon.

Eight Monitoring Parameters

The new stations will be set up to monitor and provide real time data on the following 8 parameters:

  • Particulate matter, both PM10 and PM2.5,
  • Sulphur dioxide
  • Nitrogen dioxide
  • Carbon monoxide
  • Ozone
  • Ammonia
  • Benzene and
  • Weather

Highlighting the Features of the New Stations

  • The new monitoring stations will be designed in a much advanced way so that the existing gaps in measuring air quality can be reduced.
  • It will give a proper status of pollution levels in Delhi.
  • The new monitoring stations will also help in implementing Graded Response Action Plan for winter in Delhi and NCR as made mandatory by the Supreme Court, earlier in January. The plan incorporates certain preventive measures based on air quality, which can range from moderate to poor, very poor, severe, and severe-plus or emergency.
  • In different strategic locations of the city, including residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional, the new monitoring stations will be installed. This in turn will give a true picture of air pollution in Delhi.
  • Such air quality monitoring stations will help the government and other stakeholders to effectively control air pollution in the city.

To sum up

This is indeed a good step taken by the Delhi Government. Delhi is one of the most polluted cities not only in India but all over the world. Air quality is not same everywhere in the city. Some are gripped with severe pollution while some other areas have controlled pollution. The more the number of air pollution monitoring stations, the better it will be to understand the nature of pollution in various parts of the city. This in turn will help the concerned authorities to take the necessary measures to reduce the level of pollution in Delhi.