The Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) is planning to install an automatic air sampler for online monitoring of air pollution in Indore. The device will be installed at the most polluted area of the city and will capture air quality of 100 metre area around it. The board will spend more than Rs 1 crore on the device.
The board has taken cue from the highly polluted metropolitan cities like Delhi, Kolkata and others and taken a decision of this pilot project. Once successful, it will be implemented in other cities of the state including Bhopal.
The automatic gadget that will regularly collect air sample, test the air on various parameters like RSPM, NOX and SPM and immediately give the real-time air composition reading of the 100 meters area around it.
Initially, the department plans to install only a single instrument in the entire city that is spread across 276 sq km area and has diverse pollution levels owing to nature of habitat and industrial operations.
"One device will be installed in a polluted location that is yet to be decided and later more of such devices may be added," claimed MPPCB chief chemist Aparna Bapat.
"The entire setup of the device costs more than Rs 1 crore and every other additional device installed to cover rest of the city will cost the same. It is not sure as to when will it be installed though," she added.
The device will have automatic sensors that will capture the air particles on a 24 hours basis and the reading can be taken at any given time.
Environment department head at SGSITS Dr DJ Killedar said, "Although it is a positive move that the system is being put up in our city, the board could have installed more of this instrument at different locations which would have helped in the profiling of the city and declaring pollution free zones too".
"Even the air quality index can only be estimated when the city is profiled in different pollution zones," he added.
At present, the board uses three mobile instruments called as the respirable dust sampler that are shifted from one station to the other for checking the ambient air quality. Explaining the mechanism of this device, Dr Killedar said that it converts the analog signal to digital after sensing the concentration of pollutants in the air.
Critically Ill indore
The MoEF recently included Indore and Singrauli of MP in 8 critically polluted areas of the country on account of which the board is compelled to take stringent actions to bring down the pollution levels.
MPPCB will execute the action plan with other stake holders including IMC, RTO, etc to bring down pollution levels.
Other cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow will also install a similar device which is believed to cost around Rs 80L each.
