BHUBANESHWAR: When WHO released its findings on pollution levels in 1,600 cities, Bhubaneswar was ranked 250th in the world. Since then, the once fresh air of Odisha’s capital has only gotten worse. A study by the Centre for Science and Environment monitored nine cities in Odisha. Of these, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Balasore have high levels of air pollution. It forecast that PM 2.5 levels will double in Bhubaneswar in the next five to seven years.
Given the increasing number of vehicles over the last decade, it’s a likely scenario. The number of registered vehicles has seen a jump of over 80 per cent in the last six years. There were six lakh vehicles on Bhubaneswar’s roads in 2010. At the end of last month, that number touched 11 lakh.
About 75 per cent of the vehicles on the roads are personal vehicles, dominated by two-wheelers. Plus, there are as many as 30,000 auto-rickshaws, which are the most polluting.