With the City Beautiful falling into the grip of multi-pollutant crisis, the Chandigarh Administration is set to get a ‘source apportionment study’ conducted to identify the factors responsible for “very poor” air quality in the city.
The study will assist the UT Administration in preparing a long-term action plan to counter the problem of air pollution.
The air quality index (AQI) was recorded between 300 and 400 in the city this past fortnight. An AQI between 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor and 401-500 severe.
At present, Chandigarh faces a major challenge due to continuous growth of urban population, private vehicle ownership, congestion and also due to the fragility of public transport here. Besides motor vehicle emissions, the stubble burning in neighboring agrarian states of Punjab and Haryana, industrial emissions is also stated to be worsening the air quality of the union territory of Chandigarh.
Debendra Dalai, Director, UT Department of Environment, while talking to The Pioneer said, “We have decided to get a ‘source apportionment study’ conducted to specify the major sources fouling up the city’s air. We have been allotted Rs 80 lakh by the Union Ministry to get this study done.”
He said, “Tenders will be floated soon to invite experts to conduct the study. This is for the first time that such a study would be conducted in Chandigarh. In the past, ‘source apportionment study’ has been conducted in Delhi to identify major sources of air pollution.”
“As per our general analysis, we have come to the conclusion that stubble burning, vehicle emissions, industries emissions, construction work are some of the major factors for air pollution in
Chandigarh. The Department is however not certain on how much these and other factors are responsible for city’s poor air quality,” he said.
The study will help us find out the exact composition of the pollutants. By identifying the source profile, we can prepare a long term plan to effectively deal with the problem of air pollution in Chandigarh, Dalai added.
About the “very poor” air quality index recorded in Chandigarh post Diwali, he said that this time, three days before Diwali, the air quality had deteriorated in the city due to stubble burning in neighboring states. The bursting of crackers on the occasion of Diwali, certainly worsened the air quality here but other factors also led to smog here, Dalai said.
The air quality has improved since Monday and it was below 100 in the city, he added.
The AQI was 95 at 5 PM in the city on Friday.
As per the data of Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee, the AQI was 371 in Sector 22, 352 in IMTECH-Sector 39, 341 in Sector 25, 280 in PEC Sector 12 and 247 in Sector 17 on Diwali this year.
Chandigarh had also recorded a high concentration of PM 10- (particulate matters with diameter of 10 microns or less) and PM2.5 (particulate matters less than 2.5 microns)-form of air pollution, which is considered most serious.
Notably, the State of Environment Report, Chandigarh (SOEC) 2018 released in July this year had stated that among the four major air pollutants that are monitored here, PM 10 and PM 2.5 concentration in Chandigarh’s air is much more than the permissible limits while SO2 (sulfur dioxide), NOx (nitrogen oxide) are within permissible limits (40 µg/m3 and 50 µg/m3 respectively).
Chandigarh has over two vehicle per capita household, making it the city with highest density of vehicles, the SOEC report stated adding that the vehicle emissions have become the major reason of pollution in the city.
The percentage increase in the total number of vehicles in Chandigarh for more than over a decade (2007-2018) has been over 24.5.
