Winter is almost here, and Nagpur city has been enveloped in smog and drabness for the past few days. On Tuesday, Nagpur City’s ambient air quality was rated as “poor,” which can make breathing difficult for most people after extended exposure.
On Tuesday the newly installed Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) reported the PM 2.5 level above 200 mark, which is considered in ‘poor’ category.
CAAQMS in the Mahal area reported the highest PM2.5 with 247 at 5 pm on Tuesday. Due to heavy traffic and ongoing construction work on Amravati Road, the CAAQMS at Ram Nagar area reported the air quality level at 230 mark at 10 am which was second poorest after Mahal area CAAQMS in Ambazari area reported the PM2.5 level was222 mark at 3 pm.
The oldest station which is situated at the General Post Office (GPO) in Civil Lines area recorded the PM2.5 level of 211 mark which was recorded at 7 pm on Tuesday. On Monday, Mahal and Ram Nagar areas also crossed the poor air quality mark with 216 and 219 respectively. Ambazari was 193 and GPO was 178.
All the three new CAAQMS that are installed by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in different parts of the city started working in the month of this year.
All the three new CAAQMS that are installed by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in different parts of the city started working in the month of January this year. However, MPCB has started uploading the data of these stations on CPCB website for public use from June 12. Nagpur city got these three CAAQMS under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) mission started by the Government of India to improve the air quality of major cities that have high pollution.
Normally, the air quality of Nagpur city remains satisfactory or moderate and on very rare events the air quality deteriorates to ‘poor’ level and it happens mostly during winter season. This year, the air quality was first observed at ‘poor’.