According to a report published in The Times Of India, right from being in the seventh position in 2019 where the air quality of the country matters, Mumbai’s air quality comes down to 29th position. A report by Chittaranjan Tembhekar, states that the air quality has come down this low due to a major factor. Carcinogenic particles of two types have got mixed into the air of Mumbai. And due to this, the concentration levels in the particulate matter have risen. Due to this, Nashik, Pune, Navi Mumbai, and Chandrapur which were once among the less polluted cities in 2019 have started showing poor quality in the air this time.
Aggressive Action For Meeting AQI Targets
In 2022, Delhi which ranks among the most highly polluted cities in the world has become the most polluted city in India. But according to the analysis, it also shows that in comparison to the air quality of Delhi in 2019, it is much better this time. The quality has improved by more than seven percent. Four years back a very high-budgeted NCAP had been launched which would ensure and monitor the reduction of pollution in the air. To do this, it would also implement a few effective measures too across the hundred and thirty-one cities in the non-attainment category of air pollution.
These non-attainment cities were marked based on the failed standards into reaching the mark of air quality as per the national standards. Mumbai has been among them. The present average limit of safety per year of this country based on air quality is 2.5 PM. In the beginning, during the year 2014, the NCAP had kept a target of keeping the pollutants in the air reduced by twenty to thirty percent.
Now taking the base year as 2017 for the improvement in the quality of air, a new target has been set. This has been made keeping in view the fact that the air quality is drastically worsening each year on the whole. The center during September 2022, has taken the initiative of improving it further by forty percent by the end of 2026. This initiative includes all the cities that are enlisted under the NCAP. Indeed this drastic scenario in the air quality are been seen by all, every day, especially during the winter months and also immediately after Diwali. Just a week back, there has been so low visibility in Delhi due to fog and pollution that life has become very difficult for the people in that city to sustain.
To meet these targets, a fund amounting to over rupees six thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven crores has been allotted by the fifteenth finance commission. All the cities that are enlisted under it shall get the benefit of the funding so that the air quality can be improved. The analysis of air pollution is so much alarming that it does not spare the coastal regions of India such as Mumbai as well. Indeed a lot of work is left to be done about it. But surely things are improving as the air quality in Delhi has reached the very poor category from the severe category. It is hoped that Mumbai too shall catch up with the pace and shall turn the quality of air much higher.