Delhi Budget: Efforts to map, combat pollution sources to be intensified

The Delhi government started the country’s first real-time source apportionment lab at Pandara Road on January 30 this year. Gahlot said this lab will now be replicated across Delhi’s 11 districts as mobile vans

The Delhi government will, over the next financial year, intensify its efforts to identify the city’s pollution sources in real-time, state finance minister Kailash Gahlot said on Wednesday, adding that a mobile van will be stationed in each district to better identify pollutants.

Gahlot also reiterated the government’s target of planting 5.2 million saplings across the city in 2023-24. (HT Photo)

Announcing a budget allocation of ₹263 crore for the environment and forest sectors (a marginal decrease from last year’s allocation of ₹266 crore), the minister said the government intents to reduce air pollution levels in the city.

The Delhi government started the country’s first real-time source apportionment lab at Pandara Road on January 30 this year. Gahlot said this lab will now be replicated across Delhi’s 11 districts as mobile vans, which will be able to precisely identify the sources of Delhi’s hazardous pollution.

Gahlot also said that the government aims to keep 1,400-km of roads under the ambit of the state public works department free of dust by washing them regularly and using mechanised sweepers.

During Wednesday’s speech, Gahlot also reiterated the government’s target of planting 5.2 million saplings across the city in 2023-24, a plan that was announced earlier this month.”

Gahlot said that in 2022-23, said the government had deployed 84 mechanised road sweepers, 609 sprinklers, and 639 anti-smog guns to bring down pollution. He also said that Delhi’s forest cover share was brought to 11.6 sq/metre, which, he said, was the highest among other cities, like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. For the current year, 70 mechanical road sweeping machines and 210 water-sprinkler cum anti-smog gun machines will be added.

The finance minister also claimed that since the AAP government took to power in 2014, the particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and PM 10 levels in Delhi were coming down each year and had dropped by over 30% since 2014.

“The presence of PM 10 in the air of Delhi was 324 parts per million (PPM) in 2014, which came down to 223 PPM in 2022. Similarly, PM 2.5 in Delhi’s air was 149 PPM in 2014, which came down to 103 PPM in 2022. The concentration of both PM 10 and PM 2.5 has reduced by more than 30% in the last eight years, so air pollution in Delhi has reduced by 30%,” said Gehlot. He added the number of days when the Air Quality Index logs in Delhi’s air in the “severe” category (higher than 400) came down to six says in 2022 as compared to 26 days in 2016.

Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said while the overall allocation to the environment sector was not too high, however, considerable funds were allocated to transport in order to create more EV charging infrastructure and introduce new buses – steps that, according to her, will help Delhi’s air quality. “The next step is to create a strategy that encourages people to use public transport. At the same time, deploying 11 mobile vans is a good move, but it is even more important how this data is utilised,” she said.

Experts have noted that pollution in Delhi rises during winters due to stubble burning from neighbouring states like Punjab and Haryana coupled with meteorological conditions such as calm winds, low temperatures, and a low mixing height which favour the accumulation of pollutants. However, even with an AAP counterpart in Punjab, it still needs to be seen what measures the two states may take together to curb pollution in the national capital.