BBN hub gets Himachal's first air quality monitoring station

Tribune News Service

Solan, March 21

The air quality in the industrial hub of Baddi- Barotiwala- Nalagarh (BBN) region will be monitored on a real-time basis now with the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) having installed the state’s first continuous ambient air quantity monitoring station at Baddi.

“The station will monitor eight ambient air quality parameters, like particulate matter (2.5 and 10), nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone, ammonia, carbon monoxide and benzene, and will also provide information about weather-related parameters on a real-time basis. The station has been set up at a cost of Rs 1.75 crore, of which Rs 96.70 lakh was provided by the National Clean Air Programme,” informed Praveen Gupta, Chief Engineer, SPCB.

Other such centres were being set up at Paonta Sahib, Shimla and Sundarnagar to strengthen the air quality monitoring mechanism.

Seven towns — Baddi, Damtal, Kala Amb, Nalagarh, Paonta Sahib, Parwanoo and Sundarnagar — figure under the non-attainment cities category as they have failed to adhere to ambient air quality norms. Their ambient particulate matter was rated poor by the Central Pollution Control Board continuously since 2011. In a bid to reduce air pollution in the BBN, a comprehensive action plan has also been chalked out by the SPCB.

There are 519 pollutant-emitting industries in the BBN industrial cluster, including 52 red and 467 orange category industries with cement, stone crushers, brick-kiln, metal-finishing, pulp and paper, steel/ferro alloy-based and electroplating industries falling under this category.

Bio-mass burning is also practiced in the precincts of the area, which impacts the air quality. Vehicular exhaust, dust, construction activity, garbage burning and domestic fuel also contribute to the poor air quality. Transportation of crushed stone and sand in trucks also leads to high levels of suspended particulate matter as well as respirable suspended particulate matter. But no mechanism has to be devised to check these practices.

7 towns on the radar

Seven towns — Baddi, Damtal, Kala Amb, Nalagarh, Paonta Sahib, Parwanoo and Sundarnagar — figure under the non-attainment cities category as they have failed to adhere to ambient air quality norms.

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