According to a report published today in The Times Of India, in the process of expediting the area of Mumbai at the micro level, a big action plan is being undertaken. Surveillance monitors are being installed to keep track of the quality of air in Mumbai. It must be mentioned that of late the quality of air in Mumbai has gone very poor and has overstepped the air quality levels of Delhi too. it has been the second day at a stretch that the quality of air is worse than in Delhi. Delhi has shown a marking of three hundred and eight in its air quality whereas Mumbai reads three hundred and twelve from the past two days.
The major areas that are contributing to this poor air quality in Mumbai are Andheri, Navi Mumbai, Chembur, Mazgaon, and BKC. This January sixteenth the readings of Mumbai’s quality of air have shown three hundred and six in comparison to Delhi’s two hundred and forty-two. According to the Air Quality Index, it has been found that two and a half points of a concentrated particulate matter of carcinogenic are present in the air. The sustainability of this for a long time can affect the respiratory system. The AQI levels that are between zero and hundred are considered good. It is moderate if the levels are between a hundred to two hundred. It is poor if the level reaches between two hundred to three hundred and is very poor when it stays between three hundred to four hundred.
According to the country’s clean air program, twenty monitoring stations have been proposed to be built and five more such projects are in the pipeline. But experts are of the view that the number of monitoring stations needs to be increased keeping in view the vastness of the metropolitan regions in Mumbai.
According to V M Motghare, who happens to be the joint director of the board of pollution control in Maharashtra, due to the distribution of spatial engineering, twenty existing monitoring stations are more than enough. Yet, five more additional ones have been proposed to make the process of monitoring more stronger.
Sachchidananda Tripathi who happens to be a professor at Kanpur’s IIT has said that Mumbai being a huge metro city would require more monitoring stations. However, he has also added that since the government is importing monitors of regulatory grade which are more expensive so, it may not add further monitors for measuring the quality of air in Mumbai.
An inventory for mapping the various emission sources has been prepared to know about the various sources of air pollution measuring every two kilometers across the city of Mumbai. This shall help in quantifying accurately the emission levels in the whole city at the micro level. the EI has detected the major causes of pollution. Seventy percent of the pollution is due to the particulate matter from the dust across both paved and unpaved roads. About eight percent of pollution is from the different construction sites and about three percent is from diesel vehicles that are heavy-duty in nature. The city shall require at least hundred and fifty monitors for measuring its air quality.