Air quality improves by 24% in Chandigarh over 8 years: Minister

With the implementation of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), the city’s ambient air quality has improved over the past eight years.

In reply to a question raised in the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, Kirti Vardhan Singh, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, stated that the ambient air quality status in Chandigarh during 2017-18, with respect to the annual average PM10 concentration was 114, which improved to 86 in 2025-26, registering an improvement of 24.6 per cent.

PM10 is the particulate matter 10 micrometres or less in diameter. These particles are small enough to be inhaled into lungs and can induce adverse health effects.

The minister said the government had launched the National Clean Air Programme in 2019 as a national-level strategy to reduce air pollution levels across the country. From 2019-20 to 2025-26, an amount of Rs 46.75 crore was released to the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) for carrying out air quality monitoring through monitoring stations, the minister said. He added that Rs 31.17 crore was utilised by 2025-26, which meant that of the total funds, nearly 67 per cent had been utilised by the Chandigarh Administration.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change had launched the NCAP in January 2019 to tackle the problem of air pollution in a comprehensive manner with the targets to achieve 20 to 30 per cent reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations by 2024, with respect to base year 2017-18, in non-attainment and million-plus cities, including Chandigarh.

Subsequently, the target has been revised to achieve up to 40 per cent reduction or achieve the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in terms of PM concentrations by 2025-26.