‘AIRWISE will give 72-hour advance warnings on air quality’

Mumbai's BMC launches Project AIRWISE for advanced air quality forecasting amid rising pollution, aiming for better pollution management and early warnings.

MUMBAI: With Mumbai’s air quality slipping into the ‘moderate’ category on Wednesday, the BMC has moved ahead with the rollout of Project AIRWISE, an advanced air quality intelligence and forecasting system being implemented in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. The system is designed specifically for Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and will function as a decision-support tool for pollution mitigation and enforcement planning.

‘AIRWISE will give 72-hour advance warnings on air quality’

According to BMC officials, AIRWISE is a model-ready air quality intelligence, forecasting and source attribution system that will integrate meteorological data, satellite observations, emissions fields, activity patterns and real-time sensor and Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS) measurements.

The system will be capable of forecasting air quality at high spatial resolution and providing 72-hour advance warnings, source contribution assessments to aid hotspot alerts and operational preparedness during periods of high pollution. The BMC has already issued the purchase order for the project on October 15, 2025, and the work is currently underway.

Civic officials said AIRWISE had been developed along the lines of Delhi’s forecasting model, where forecasting is carried out through collaboration with IITM. “We already have forecasting through SAFAR, but AIRWISE will act as an early warning system,” said a senior BMC official. “It will take real-time CAAQMS data, emission inventory inputs and meteorological parameters and use statistical forecasting to predict air quality for the next 72 hours.”

Over the next six months, IITM scientists will process large datasets using high-performance computing systems. “This will help us understand which areas and which parameters can be controlled. Acting before air quality deteriorates will have a better impact than reactive action,” the official added, noting that weather forecasting, pollution sources and ongoing initiatives, including SAFAR for air quality monitoring, will be included.

The rollout comes even as Mumbai’s overall AQI climbed to 133 on Thursday after remaining in the 80-100 range over the previous three to four days. Station-wise data showed several locations recording high AQI levels, including BKC at 154, Chakala (Andheri East) at 152, Colaba at 111, Malad West at 158 and Kherwadi (Bandra East) at 138 .

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the Santacruz laboratory recorded a minimum temperature of 18.4 degrees Celsius, 1.8 degrees above normal, while the Colaba laboratory recorded a minimum temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, 1.7 degrees above normal while humidity remained at 87 percent overall.

A senior civic official said, “High humidity levels and changing wind patterns have contributed to recent fluctuations in air quality, even as civic action continues on the ground.”

Separately, the BMC has also begun issuing tenders for five new CAAQMS stations to expand spatial monitoring across the city and has procured 29 vehicle-mounted dust-suppression units for deployment across all wards.

“Earlier this week, we also began preparing an area-wise inventory of polluting emissions across Mumbai, aimed at identifying dominant pollution sources and aligning future mitigation measures with real-time forecasting outputs,” said the BMC official.