In a bid to ramp up the existing infrastructure of air quality monitoring, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) is set to get 15 new continuous ambient air quality monitoring system stations or CAAQMS in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) before the start of winter.
According to the MPCB, while three additional stations each will be set up in Thane, Vasai-Virar, and Kalyan-Dombivali areas, two stations each will be installed in the Mira-Bhayander, Ulhasnagar and Bhiwandi Nizampur areas. Each of these stations will cost Rs 9 crore, officials said.
The move will be a big push against a prolonged demand raised by scientists and experts amid the growing concern of the worsening Air Quality Index (AQI) in Mumbai as well as its satellite districts.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) dashboard, 26 AQI monitoring stations are operational in Mumbai. These stations are jointly operated by the MPCB, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM). However, the number of AQI monitoring stations operating in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is limited.
The CPCB’s dashboard shows that at present, there are only two stations operational in Thane (Kasarvadavali and Upvan Fort) while there is one each in Bhiwandi (Gokul Nagar), Kalyan (Khadakpada), Ulhasnagar (Siddhi Vinayak Nagar), Virar (Vilanj) and Mira Bhayander (Bhayander West) areas. There is no monitoring in Dombivali.
“The work order for acquiring these stations has been issued, and they will be supplied to us in a phased manner starting next month. Before winter, when the city’s AQI usually worsens, we will have more stations in place to monitor and identify areas which record poor AQI and will be able to mitigate them accordingly,” an MPCB official told The Indian Express.
“The plan of augmenting the number of monitoring stations is part of a larger project where we intend to install more than 50 monitoring stations across Maharashtra,” the official added.
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Over the past few years, poor air quality days have become a regular occurrence during the winter. Between November 2022 and January 2023, Mumbai recorded nearly 60 days of bad AQI out of the total 92 days. The next year, the BMC launched the Mumbai Air Pollution Mitigation Plan (MAPMP) to curb the worsening AQI of the city. In its guidelines, the Mumbai civic administration had identified construction works, garbage burning, and road dust displacement to be some of the major contributing factors behind the worsening AQI. However, the administration and independent experts had expressed concerns that there was also a need to monitor the AQI in the MMR districts where the existing infrastructure is not up to the mark.
“Outside Mumbai, issues like garbage burning and dust displacement are rampant. Since the air shared across the cities is common, the AQI of Mumbai also gets affected severely due to the activities in the MMR areas. Therefore, it is important to increase the area of monitoring across districts,” Bhagwan Kesbhat, who heads the NGO Waatavaran, told The Indian Express.
“It is a positive move that the MPCB is adding new stations, but they should be installing them in proper areas and must not relocate them after the stations show high numbers. It is important to be precise with the AQI numbers and take mitigation measures accordingly,” he added.