Air purifiers will be installed at five of the most polluted road intersections in Mumbai over the next three months, traffic officials have said.
The devices – developed by the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute – will use solar power to filter the air of health-endangering particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM10) , carbon monoxide emissions released by vehicles, and volatile organic compounds.
The city’s pollution levels set off alarm bells in the last week of January, when its AQI (air quality level) hit 341 – close to Delhi’s value at the time. Experts at the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research said the spike in pollution was partly due to a fire that raged on for days at the Deonar dumping ground.