Environment

Delhi Air Pollution: Bi-Weekly Action Plans

Bhanupriya Saini

Updated:10th Jan, 2019 at 5:06 PM

The national capital would soon have bi-weekly action plans to help authorities tackle the deadly air pollution, especially in the winter season when the air quality reduces to 'severe' levels. The action plans being developed by scientists from IIT Delhi would be submitted to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

These plans would forecast the pollution levels for the next fortnight, localities that might have higher pollution levels, sources that need to be controlled, preventive measures and the percentage by which pollution levels could go down if the plan is executed.

The plans would be submitted to the CPCB in advance so that the concerned authorities would get time to take the required actions, Sri Harsha Kota, assistant professor at civil engineering department of IIT-Delhi, who specializes in developing air quality models. Depending on the forecast, the measures suggested for every fortnight would change.

Reportedly, the first plan is likely to be submitted by February 2019. The project, which is funded by the CPCB, was initially planned to cover Delhi. However, it will now cover NCR regions on CPCB's suggestion.

Emission inventory report of Delhi made by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune and data of three years from the India Meteorological Department and National Physical Laboratory would be used to make the action plans

Measures from Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) would be used. However, the suggested measures would be different from GRAP as it is a general emergency response plan when pollution levels are already high and the bi-weekly plans would give preventive measures that would help lower down the pollution in expected hotspots.