n With air pollution hitting the urban centres hard, at least five cities of Odisha have been included under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
The latest addition is the major industrial zone of Kalinganagar, which has been included by the Union Government under NCAP, and the Centre would provide funds to take up initiative to tackle the air pollution.
Earlier in the NCAP, urban centres like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela and Talcher had been included. So, five urban centres now find places in the list of NCAP and action plans are being prepared for the purpose.
While including Kalinganagar under NCAP, the Central Government has asked the State Government to prepare an action plan for tackling air pollution problem for the industrial zone.
There are 103 urban centres in the country included under the NCAP under which special funds are allocated by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
The MoEFCC is providing 28 Priority Cities with 10 lakh plus population with Rs 10 crore per city.
The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack twin cities would get Rs 10 crore during 2019-20 and 19 urban centres having population of 5-10 lakh would be funded with Rs 20 lakh per city.
The rest urban centers would be provided Rs 10 lakh each for tackling air
pollution under NCAP, officials said.
Now, mechanical street sweepers would be placed in the twin cities to clean the roads and setting up of mobile enforcement units will be taken up under the Action Plan of NCAP, said sources.
Four Priority Urban Centres Action Plans are being formulated and initiative would be taken for creating Green Buffer Zones along with several other initiatives.
Installation and commissioning of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station (CAAMS) would be taken up under the scheme, said a senior official in the Department of Forest and Environment.
Promotion of bicycle by creating bicycle tracks in the cities is being undertaken in the Action Plan, officials said.
Smart City Bhubaneswar has gone ahead with such initiatives while Rourkela city has also taken up measures as it is another Smart City of the State.
