NEW DELHI: The government’s environment department is in the process of finalising a ‘supersite’ where a control room for real-time data on pollution sources will be set up by August 1 in the city, said officials.
According to the officials, a location on the first floor of a building at Mandir Marg or Panadara Road in central Delhi is in the process for setting up the control room. “One of the two locations is likely to be zeroed in within this month for setting up the super site and mobile laboratory, preferably the first floor of a building. We plan to set up the supersite by July and carry out testing so that it’s ready to show pollution forecast by July-end,” said a senior official.
Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that the project will be available from August 1. The ambitious project being carried out with teams from IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Delhi and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) was sanctioned by the government last year.
Officials said that within a year of launch, the supersite will be completely handed over to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), which is the nodal agency for the project. “DPCC team of scientists will start training on the equipment soon after the launch so that they become sound at operating the equipment.”
Also, the pollution-control body is to collate and give data on the various pollution sources to the IIT teams to set up the emissions inventory. This will include data such as the registered number of vehicles in Delhi and NCR districts over the last four years, traffic diverted to the Eastern and Western Peripheral ways, length of paved and unpaved roads, locations of industries and fuel type used, fuel used in crematoria and list of construction activities among others.
Delhi, which faces mega episodes of pollution in winter months, will become the first city in the country to identify the real-time source of air pollution through its apportionment system. Based on the results, the government will be able to take the necessary steps to curb the specific sources of pollution in the city.
Rai to discuss ways to curb toxic air
NEW DELHI: Environment Minister Gopal Rai will chair a multi-department high-level meeting on air pollution on Monday to plan a campaign against open burning of garbage, fires at landfill sites and dust pollution, officials said on Sunday. The meeting will be held at the Delhi Secretariat and officials from the environment department, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, Public Works Department, Delhi Development Authority and municipal corporations will be in present in the meeting.