Industrial towns still have poor air quality

Baddi fares most poorly, followed by Nalagarh

Tribune News Service

Solan, April 15

Air quality of the state”s industrial towns like Baddi, Nalagarh, Kala Amb and Paonta Sahib continues to be poor as its particulate matter (PM) 10 levels exceeded the 60 μg/m3 limits prescribed under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Some improvement has been registered in other towns like Parwanoo, Sunder Nagar and Damtal, though the tourist town of Manali, too, has been rated poorly. PM 10 is particulate matter 10 micrometres or less in diameter and it is measured in microgram per cubic metre.

As per the Central Pollution Control Board’s latest report, the industrial town of Baddi continues to have the worst PM 10 level of 164 μg/m3 while in the adjoining Nalagarh, it is slightly better at 148 μg/m3. The Kala Amb industrial cluster in Sirmaur district has also failed to improve its air quality. In Paonta Sahib, the PM 10 level was 88 μg/m3. The non-industrial town of Sunder Nagar has PM 10 at 84 μg/m3 while the tourist hotspot of Manali has for the first time been included in this list as its PM10 has been rated at 68 μg/m3. The industrial town of Una recorded a PM 10 level of 67 μg/m3 while in Parwanoo and Damtal PM 10 is 63 μg/m3. In the state capital, the air quality was just found to be safe at 60 μg/m3. These towns figure in non-attainment cities of the country for poor air quality.

Member Secretary, State Pollution Control Board, Aditya Negi said efforts were afoot to improve the air quality of the industrial towns and some improvement was visible in Parwano, Damtal and Sunder Nagar. Efforts like installing continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations to monitor the air quality on real-time basis are afoot, besides the implementation of action plans in letter and spirit, he said.