NAGPUR: To create awareness in public and industries which contribute to air pollution, city-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Neeri) has come up with a mobile van which will carry the state-of-the-art equipment to monitor the levels of gases released from industries and vehicles.
This van 'Emission Monitoring Vehicle and Control Lab' (EMVCL) can also help reduce the pollution levels by scrubbing the stags or chimneys of industries which release toxic gases. The vehicle is also equipped to suck in the harmful gases released from vehicles at road intersections and junctions where vehicles, while waiting for the green signal, keep releasing a lot of poisonous gases.
Neeri director Satish Wate told TOI that the van would help those industries which are volunteering to monitor their actual pollution levels and adopt corrective measures. Second it will be used to monitor the level of toxic fumes released by vehicles at places like traffic signals and also demonstrate how the smoke coming out could be sucked in at these junctions by using the equipment installed.
Air Pollution Control (APC) head and Neeri scientist involved in the project, Padma Rao said she basically aimed at creating awareness about their responsibility to industries and vehicle manufacturers who were the biggest polluters. "The basic principle of 'polluter pays' should actually be followed by every individual or industry. Hence we would be sharing the data generated from our studies with vehicle manufacturers so that they can take up the responsibility of minimizing pollution in the interest of everyone by taking up projects in that direction. They can actually create green shields or set up suction units around areas where the pollution levels are high as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR)," she said.
To begin with, Neeri took up a project of finding out the different types of pollutants and their actual levels at Bhandewadi, the municipal waste disposal site in the city. "We had expected many harmful gases here, but were really astonished to find many other unexpected pollutants. The gases released here include methane, nitrous oxide, nitrogen mono-oxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, formalin, acetylene, Vinyl acetate, formic acid, toluene, metaxylene etc
Neeri plans to first study the pollution caused from lime kilns (at Wani) and stone crushers in and around the district. Then it plans to share the information with Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and involve it in giving Neeri assessment projects and gradually move on to industries which volunteer first to curb their pollution problems like rolling mills, sponge iron plants, plywood manufacturers etc.
