The World Bank has decided to install three continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations to ascertain the impact of the construction of the roads under Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP).
The World Bank has decided to install three continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations to ascertain the impact of the construction of the roads under Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) will carry out the installation process.
The MMRDA is in the process of constructing the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) and Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) under the MUTP. While the work for the SCLR is yet to gather momentum, the JVLR work is nearing completion. Once the 10.46-km-long JVLR is functional, vehicular population in the area is set to rise. However, since there will be reduction in traffic congestion, officials feel that this will also reduce vehicular pollution. To ascertain the impact of the projects, World Bank team had emphasised the need for augmenting the ambient air quality monitoring network.
In a joint meeting of the bank officials, the MMRDA and the MPCB, it was decided that bank will bear 80% cost of the stations; whereas the MPCB will contribute the rest. The MMRDA will make arrangements for land and procure stations as per MPCB guidelines.
According to Sanjay Khandare, member secretary of the MPCB, the machines will be bought from abroad. “These monitoring stations are specifically designed as per the requirement of a particular area. The MPCB will carry out a study after considering the existing monitoring network. Once the MMRDA provides us the land, we will install the stations.
The MPCB will maintain them for a period of seven years,” Khandare told DNA.
“In the transportation projects funded by the World Bank, attention is paid on the environmental impact of the project. Installation of these stations is part of it. This process will be completed in the next three months,” said Milind Mhaiskar, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA. Although the locations for the monitoring stations is yet to be finalised, the idea is to set up two of the stations in the western suburbs and one in the island city.
s_ninad@dnaindia.net
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