BENGALURU: Although pedestrianisation of Church Street has shown a drop in pollution levels, and improved the air quality index, experts point out that a check be done on sources of combustible pollutants like nitrous oxide.
Anumita Roychowdhary, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment on Friday, said particulate matter (PM10) is not excessive, but PM2.5 is showing an increase. While the impact of dust is low, the effect of combustion sources is high. She said there’s a need to study the sources and their impact on pedestrians. “There is also a need for data on gaseous impact,” she added.
The experts, who participated in the international webinar on ‘Church Street First -- Impact Assessment of Pedestrianising an Urban Street in terms of Quality of Life’, stated that to ensure better health and improve air quality, pedestrianising of one street and that too on weekends, will not help.
During the webinar, three reports on air quality index, pedestrianisation level of service analysis, and boarding and alighting at public transit stations, were also released. Experts also pointed that pollution continues to be high because of traffic on MG Road, Brigade Road, Museum Road and St Marks Road.
The participants also highlighted that from November 2020 to February 2021, there was a rise in the number of pedestrians by 1,000 every month.