3 Delhi air quality stations not meeting location norms, but their location will not be shifted

A PAC report reveals only three air quality monitoring stations in Delhi fail to meet guidelines, down from 13 last year, amid ongoing pollution concerns.

An audit of the continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) in the Capital has shown that only three — Anand Vihar, RK Puram and Jahangirpuri —do not meet the guidelines for installation as compared to the 13 flagged by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) last year, said a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Monday. The report added that, while it had been initially decided to shift the stations away from the locations, the committee later decided against the move since they are installed in dense populated areas and capture outlier readings.

3 Delhi air quality stations not meeting location norms, but their location will not be shifted

The CAG performance audit, titled “Prevention and Mitigation of Vehicular Air Pollution in Delhi for the year ended 31 March, 2021,” had said 13 stations were not meeting the prescribed Central Pollution Control Board norms because they were either too close to trees, major roads, obstacles, high-rise buildings and unpaved roads, thus making the data possibly inaccurate and unreliable.

The PAC said it sought a response from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and was told that a joint DPCC-CPCB team was constituted in 2022 for the assessment and identification of CAAQMS in line with the guidelines.

“The committee observed that all the CAAQMS are meeting the citing criteria as per CPCB guidelines except Anand Vihar, R.K Puram and Jahangirpuri,” said the PAC report, adding, “The issue was taken up by the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) and it was decided not to shift Anand Vihar, R.K. Puram, and Jahangirpuri because of factors such as dense population and high pollution levels, which are important for maintaining data continuity and capturing outlier readings.”

The report further confirmed that air quality stations are not monitoring for the metal lead (Pb). However, a five-month data monitoring exercise for lead between April and September 2022 did not reveal any lead abnormalities in Delhi’s air. “It was observed that no significant lead content was found in ambient air at any measured locations,” it said.

Further, in response to the CAG report noting that benzene was not being measured at source, PAC made note of a response from the DPCC that said that vapour recovery systems (VRS) had been installed at fuelling stations by the Bharat Corporation Limited (BPCL) in accordance with CPCB guidelines.

Addressing the discrepancies flagged by the CAG report regarding Delhi’s PUC centres, where a high number of certificates appeared to have been issued in a short amount of time, the PAC report said it had been a data issue with the Delhi e-Goverance Society (DeGS) servers. The issue resolved itself after a shift to the National Informatics Centre (NIC) servers.

“During the Audit period, the PUCC application used to be managed by the Delhi e-Governance Society (DeGS). However, when the DeGS was questioned for the discrepancies noted by the audit, it informed that these discrepancies have arisen from their own ongoing testing, as test data accumulated over 3-4 years had inadvertently merged with the main database,” the report said.

It further said regular audits of PUC centres are being carried out. Between May 2023-February 2025, it said, 1,850 such audits were carried out, with action taken against 491 centres for violations.

The CAG report also flagged the lack of data on the contribution of pollution by vehicles in the region. The PAC report noted an Emissions Inventory had been prepared by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in 2022 that said the contribution from the transport sector to PM 10 was 25% and to PM 2.5 was 47%.

Further, it said, while lack of availability of buses on road was flagged by the CAG (14-16% buses remaining off-road), DTC said the introduction of electric buses with newer technology will result in fewer breakdowns.

“Periodic depot-level reviews are now being conducted to monitor operational performance and identify corrective actions,” it said, adding, while CAG notes 238 bus routes were not being covered in Delhi anymore, the issue is down to issues like narrow roads, possible damage to low-floor buses and competition from other transport modes like the Metro, e-rickshaws and autos.

“DTC has recently executed an MoU with IIT Delhi for undertaking route rationalization of DEVI buses. The implementation of the recommendations on the report submitted by IIT Delhi is currently in progress.”