MPCB air quality check device at wrong place

Nagpur: On the one hand the government is showing concern over deteriorating air quality in big cities, but on the other it is ignoring that the ground situation is diluting effects. The latest example is Maharashtra Pollution Control Board’s (MPCB’s) new air quality monitoring device.
MPCB has installed a state-of-the-art device that continuously monitors air quality.You would expect this to be installed at a place which has high vehicular traffic. Instead it has been installed inside divisional commissioner office premises where air pollution level is low.
Environmentalist Sudhir Paliwal said that this had defeated the very purpose of the new device. “If the air quality of Nagpur is to be determined on the basis of the new device then it will present a wrong picture. It should have been installed at a place like Sitabuldi, Itwari or Sadar which are highly polluted. The existing devices too have been put up at places where pollution level is low,” he said.
Paliwal further said that such devices should be put up in localities like Mankapur, Nara, Nari and like others which bear the brunt of emissions of Koradi and Khaparkheda power plants. “Koradi plant is being expanded and soon air pollution in north Nagpur will reach alarming levels. This, however, will not be properly reflected by the readings taken in Civil Lines,” he added.
MPCB’s existing devices are installed at Institute of Engineers on North Ambazari Road, Government Polytechnic, Udyog Bhavan and office of MIDC Industries Association (MIA) in Hingna. The first three are located at places which have either a lot of greenery or have huge open spaces nearby.
MPCB officials however said that the devices gave an accurate picture of air pollution in the city. “The level of pollutants is well within the margin. It is mainly due to vehicular emissions and garbage burning. Only the particulate matter exceeds during festivals like Diwali and Ganeshotsav when fire-crackers are exploded,” an official said.
Explaining the working of new device costing over Rs1 crore, he said that it continuously monitored the ambient air quality and the results will be displayed on the agency’s website. “The existing ones do it only for two days a week and the paper has to be changed manually,” he said. “A trial run is going on and it will be commissioned after officials of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) give it a green signal. Its team will visit the city in February for this purpose,” he added.
The automatic device measures levels of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ozone, ammonia and particular matter (PM) 10 and PM 2.5. On the basis of this data, MPCB can determine the level of metals like lead in its laboratory.