NEW DELHI: With the first stage of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAR) ending next year, air quality has improved in just 49 cities out of 131 covered under the initiative in 2021-22, an independent research organisation — the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) — has claimed in its report.
The report also stated that cities such as Allahabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Srinagar and Moradabad have shown improvements in particulate matter (PM) 10 concentrations of more than 50 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) however air pollution level in other towns including Vasai-Virar, Durgapur, Byrnihat and Kala Amb deteriorated.
The findings have further pointed out that only 38 of the 131 cities that were given annual pollution reduction targets under memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed among State Pollution Control Boards, Urban Local Bodies and Central Pollution Control Board or ministry of environment, managed to meet the targets for the year 2021-22. The programme was launched by the ministry of environment, forest and climate change in 2019.
Under this initiative, the target was to achieve 20- 30 per cent reduction in PM concentrations by 2024. Since the launch of the programme, India managed to add only 45 manual ambient air quality monitoring stations per year, totalling 883 stations across 378 cities under National Air Quality Monitoring Program till December 2022.