The new stations have been located in or close to the industrial clusters of Pashamylaram, Bollaram and at Patancheru, located at ICRISAT campus. The three stations have become functional and have gone live providing real time data of different pollution parameters from these locations.

The real time pollution data so far was available from only two stations located at the Board office in Sanathnagar and Nehru Zoological Park. Two more stations at Punjagutta crossroads and University of Hyderabad campus are functional generating the data but presently not networked with the official website of the PCB. “The equipment is ready at these two points and the data from here will go live once issues of net connectivity are sorted out,” said officials.

N Raveendhar, Senior Environmental Scientist, PCB, said that the facilities were being strengthened and more stations were added for better monitoring of pollution levels in the city.

“We have taken this step recognising the urgency to monitor real-time concentration levels of critical pollutants at peak hours,” he said.

The PCB also has 22 other centres in different parts of the city where information on different parameters is regularly generated and documented. However, these do not have the facility to link and network for real time monitoring.