The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) has decided to install some “continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations” in Kolkata in an effort to monitor the city’s air pollution.
The board has now requested the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) for space in order to implement this and has chosen Beadon Square, Maddox square and Deshapriya Park to start the installation. There is need for a six metre by five metre space and an open space around it where the meters will be installed.
Next in line will be a number of other places like Science City, Jadavpur University and the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM). The matter has been discussed with the KMC authorities, along with a detailed report submitted to Mayor Sovon Chatterjee. Once the KMC nod comes, the WBPCB can start the work.
The city has been divided into various grids based on its pollution level and the stations would need to be installed every four kilometres as per this grid.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) report states that Kolkata is the second-most polluted metropolis in the country, next only to Delhi, and the air quality is only deteriorating each day.
In 2015, the annual mean of PM2.5 (fine particulate matter that leads to high plaque deposits in arteries, which can lead to heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems) of Kolkata was 52µg/m³ (microgram per cubic metre), which climbed to 74µg/m³ in 2016. In 2017, the city’s pollution level was higher than ever before because of a huge growth in the number of vehicles, construction activities and biomass burning.
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