Road dust is a major source for Air pollution in cities

In an Action Taken Report (ATR) filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) said that 11 cities in the country have completed Source Apportionment Studies (SAS) to assess the contribution of various sources of pollution for prioritising air pollution control measures.

These 11 cities are Patna, Delhi, Baddi, Dhanbad, Bhopal, Gwalior, Navi Mumbai, Mandi Gobindgarh, Ludhiana, Ghaziabad and Lucknow.

The MOEF&CC said that cities have been provided with annual air pollution reduction targets for PM10 levels to achieve an overall reduction of up to 40 per cent by 2025-26 or to achieve National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

It added that 19 cities covered under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and committees at various levels, viz. Steering Committee under the Chief Secretary, Air Quality Monitoring Committee under the Additional Chief Secretary or Principal Secretary, Environment Department and District/City-level Monitoring and Implementation Committee under the District Collector or Municipal Commissioner, have been constituted for regular monitoring and implementation of action plans.

“For these 19 cities, an amount of Rs 1,701.54 crore has been provided under NCAP during 2019-20 till 2023-24 and an amount of Rs 1,500.58 crore has been reported to be utilised by these cities. Further, Rs 600.01 crore has been allocated for FY 2024-25 to implement annual action plans for reduction of air pollution,” said the ATR, adding that 17 out of 19 cities have shown improvement in air quality in 2023-24 with respect to 2017-18.

The ATR filed before the green tribunal added that SAS completed for Ghaziabad and Lucknow revealed that 49.2-85.7 per cent of contributions were from road dust for PM10 levels and the transport sector accounts for 7 per cent and 6 per cent pollution, respectively.

It said, “Road dust is a major source of PM10 and also contributes to PM2.5. Air pollution mitigation measures for PM10 also result in PM2.5 reduction. In addition to road dust, other significant sources of PM2.5 are vehicular emissions, industrial emissions, biomass burning, etc. which are also included in the city action plans.”

It added that measures such as implementation of BS-VI norms, Swachh Bharat Mission, and Extended Producer Responsibility for plastic and other wastes also contribute to the reduction of PM2.5 levels.

--IANS