BHUBANESWAR: Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) will install Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMSs) in the Capital to monitor realtime and peak concentration levels of critical air pollutants in the City and prepare action plan to prevent air pollution accordingly. The stations will be set up as part of National Clean Air Programme under the Central Sector ‘Control of Pollution’ scheme.
Member Secretary of the Board, Debidutta Biswal said the Central Pollution Control Board has fixed criteria for installation of these stations based on population and areas in different cities. Accordingly, three CAAQMS will be commissioned in the city in the near future.
Calculating air quality index will become much faster after installation of CAAQMSs, he said adding it takes more that eight hours to analyse pollution data at manual stations, CAAQMS will provide the same data in seconds. Installations of these stations, however, will be expensive. It may cost around `1 crore to set up and run each CAAQMS, he added.
Board officials, however, said the realtime monitoring results will help in issuing instant health advisories and formulating action plan on time to meet the required air quality standards. Such stations have been previously set up by the Board at polluted zones such as Talcher, Ib Valley and Paradip.
Sources said apart from monitoring pollutants such as SO2, NO2, PM 2.5 and PM10, CAAQMS will also help analysing level of O3, CO, BTX and other pollutants in the air which is currently done only in selected cities. Currently, the city has only six manual AAQMSs at OSPCB office, Nayapalli, IRC Village, Patrapada, Palasuni and Patia.
National Green Tribunal (NGT), which is monitoring implementation of the project, has asked the Pollution Control Boards of different States to install CAAQMS within a year. Biswal said OSPCB has already initiated the tender process. The process is expected to be completed by December end after which steps will be taken for installation of the stations in the city, he said.
The Board has also decided to commission source apportionment study in Bhubaneswar which has been identified by CPCB as non-attainment cities for consistently showing poorer air quality than National Ambient Air Quality Standards.