Ahmedabad: The steady rise in particulate matter pollution over permissible limits has forced Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), the district collectorate and Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) to formulate a new draft plan - a revision of the decade-old plan - to enforce air pollution control measures. This is the first major revision since 2000. The plan will soon be in the public domain for objections and suggestions.
Another important policy that will be put in the public domain on World Environment Day on June 5 is the Green Action Plan, to increase the tree cover in urban areas.
Particulate matter pollution consists of particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter, emitted from vehicles and industrial chimneys, which gets lodged within the lungs. There is also the issue of 10 micrometre particles, which remain in the upper part of the respiratory system.
The detailed plan for the city includes a new traffic management plan to reduce jams, construction of flyovers at busy junctions and countdown timers at all traffic junctions.
The policy also plans to ensure escalating parking prices at busy places to discourage prolonged parking and removal of encroachments to ensure that vehicles move at a steady pace. Public transport will get a budget boost to augment the fleet.
Most importantly, the draft plan requires that vehicle PUC (pollution under control) checking centres are revived in the city and are calibrated with fresh pollution limit values.
"The problem with PUC calibration is that the values set are more than a decade old. Engine technology and fuels have changed but not PUC values. The present PUC limits will be changed," says a senior AMC official.
"Industrial fumes, illegal garbage burning, use of firewood in slum areas, emissions from diesel and petrol vehicles and construction activity has together led to the rise of particulate matter pollution in the city," says a senior AMC official.
Data being collated for pollution predictions
One of the largest data repositories of emission sources in Ahmedabad is being collated. Over the last 20 days, research students of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune - partnering student volunteers from St Xavier's College and others - have been camping at various spots in the city to prepare an emission inventory for Ahmedabad.
From the emissions by kitchen stoves and car exhausts to chimneys of industrial clusters, large amounts of respirable particulate matter is being pumped into the air. This project is being brought to the city by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR). IITM needs the emission inventory to prepare mathematical models for pollution predictions in the future.
Later this year, IITM under the SAFAR initiative will install 10 live pollution monitoring devices across the city, for live PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels in certain areas.
