Despite action plan, BBN air quality poor

Ambika Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Solan, January 22

The air quality of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh is yet to improve appreciably despite an exhaustive action plan having been chalked out following the NGT directions.

Baddi figures on the national list of 102 non-attainment cities whose air quality was rated poor by the Central Pollution Control Board.

There are 519 air-emitting industries in the BBN industrial cluster which included 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 practised in the precincts of the area which significantly impacts the air quality. Vehicular exhaust, dust, construction activities, garbage burning, domestic fuel is also a contributory factor to the poor air quality. Apart from this, transportation of crushed stones and sand in open trucks also leads to high levels of suspended particulate matter as well as respirable suspended particulate matter and no mechanism has to be devised to check air pollution caused by their open transportation though the area witnesses these activities in large numbers. Little has been done to check air pollution occurring from these sources.

As per the action plan chalked by the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), fugitive emissions, occurring during improper storage and handling of the chemicals, improper storage, handling and transportation of hazardous waste generated by the industries, have been listed as a contributory factor.

At least 25,000 cars ply in this area on a daily basis and these too add to the emissions. Little has been done to bring down vehicular emissions though the action plan emphasises the need to check pollution control certification of the vehicles. Long-term measures like undertaking studies to change the fuel pattern of the industry, developing green belts and undertaking sapling plantation along the roads, which have been enlisted in the action plan to improve air quality, are yet to be implemented.

Upgrading of the existing air-monitoring stations of the State Pollution Control Board to monitor all 12 parameters of air quality was also mooted in the action plan submitted before the NGT but this was yet to be undertaken. The board was barely monitoring four air quality parameters.

Member Secretary, State Pollution Control Board, Aditya Negi, said a continuous ambient air quality monitoring system would be set up at Baddi and the work had been assigned to the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Development Corporation. Once this is set up, all 12 parameters of ambient air quality would be monitored and this would help devise required interventions to improve air quality. A study would also be conducted by the IIT Kanpur for source apportionment to know the source of air pollution to take corrective measures.

Contributory factor

• There are 519 air-emitting industries in the BBN cluster which include 52 red and 467 orange category industries
• Bio-mass burning is also practised in the precincts
• Dust, construction activities, garbage burning, domestic fuel is also a contributory factor
• 25,000 cars ply in this area on a daily basis and these too add to the emissions