NEW DELHI: Three new air quality monitoring stations are likely to go live in Delhi on Thursday. With 17 others to follow by October 15, the readings of the capital air quality could undergo a comprehensive change. Till date, there were 23 stations assessing pollution, but the Delhi Pollution Control Committee is strengthening the monitoring network with the addition of 20 more before the Graded Response Action Plan kicks in.
Air quality monitoring stations will start functioning at Karni Singh Shooting Range, Dhyan Chand Stadium and Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday. The last is the venue for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup from October 6. The remaining 17 new stations will cover areas like Mundka, Narela, Bawana and Dwarka, urban villages in Masoodpur and Dayalpur plus industrial centres like Najafgarh and Okhla.
The monitoring stations will give readings for the presence of PM 2.5, or respirable pollutants, and PM10, or coarser polluting particles, along with six other pollutants such as ozone and sulphur dioxide. Real-time data will be made available on the DPCC website, officials said. The expanded network will provide a more comprehensive air quality data in the region.
The existing 23 stations are monitored by DPCC, Central Pollution Control Board and the Union ministry of earth sciences' System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting Research (SAFAR).
DPCC officials said the new stations will allow them to cover locations that were hitherto not being mapped. "After the three stations go live from Thursday, the others will start functioning soon too," said a senior DPCC official. "We are working on them in a time-bound manner, keeping in mind the lieutenant governor's directions to ensure they start operating before October 15. The data collected will thereafter become more representative of the air quality of Delhi."
Experts feel the enhanced network can also provide data from particular areas and so allow locality-specific action to be taken, if necessary. "A denser monitoring grid will help in mapping pollution across neighbourhoods and land use," agreed Anumita Roy Chowdhury of the Centre for Science and Environment. "This will not only give us more robust data but also enable localised action to reduce people's exposure to harmful pollution."
Delhi and its neighbouring states have been directed by the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution Control Authority to form patrolling teams by October 15 to monitor waste burning, while the municipal bodies have been directed to prepare a contingency plan and submit it by Thursday.
