Air quality monitoring stations in 20 districts

Chennai: The TN State Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) will set up continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations in 20 districts across the state.
TNPCB sources told TOI that chief minister J Jayalalithaa had made the announcement in the assembly in the last session. The board had floated tenders for the work.
A senior officer said the bidder had to import the equipment and install, maintain and operate the system.This would mean that the work would be outsourced, a system introduced by the Central Pollution Control Board. Locations had been identified for the setting up of these stations, an officer said. Once the bidder installed the equipment, the monitoring would start in six months, an officer said.
The stations would record nine parameters to assess the air quality. This included analysis of particulate matter less than 10 microns and the detection and gauging of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, benzene, and nitrogen oxide. When these fine particulates mix in the air beyond permissible limits, the air gets polluted.
The state and central pollution control boards had set up stations in places with high vehicle density and heavy industries. The state had set up 16 stations. Eight of these record pollution levels at frequent intervals and the rest do it continuously. The central board had stations in Alandur, Manali, and on the IIT campus in the city, officials said.
The monitoring stations would come up at Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram (two), Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy (two), Salem, Vellore, Tirunelveli, Dindigul, Thanjavur, Cuddalore (two), Tiruppur, Krishnagiri, Udhagamandalam, Ramanathapuram, Namakkal, Ariyalur, Pudukkottai, Virudhunagar, Nagercoil and Karur, TNPCB sources said.