At BMC’s request, SAFAR ‘renames’ two air quality monitoring stations

The System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) has renamed two of its monitoring stations - at BKC and Chembur, nearly three months after the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) claimed that its monitors did not accurately reflect the city’s baseline pollution levels and they must be relocated to cleaner locations

The System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) has renamed two of its monitoring stations - at BKC and Chembur, nearly three months after the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) claimed that its monitors did not accurately reflect the city’s baseline pollution levels and they must be relocated to cleaner locations.

Mumbai, India - March 5, 2023: Boats are floating in the hazy weather near the Bandra worli sea link in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, March 5, 2023. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

An official in BMC’s environment department said that SAFAR had been requested to rename its BKC monitor as ‘Kalanagar, Bandra East’ and its Chembur monitor as ‘Patilwadi, Govandi East’. Though it initially refused, citing issues with data management, later it agreed to a compromise, the official, who refused to be named, said.

“We want the public to be well informed. The ‘BKC’ monitor is located just outside BKC at Kalanagar, which is in Bandra East. The Chembur monitor is located on the Tata Institute of Social Sciences campus at Patilwadi, Govandi East, which is close to Chembur. For the sake of accuracy, SAFAR was asked to change the names,” the official said.

On Wednesday, both parties mutually agreed to retain the original names, with BMC’s proposed names in parentheses. The monitors will now officially be called ‘BKC (Kalanagar)’ and ‘Chembur (TISS)’. Interestingly, these two stations have been routinely recording some of the highest pollution levels in the city since 2015.

HT was the first to report that in January, MPCB approached BMC, seeking to relocate the nine stations run by SAFAR on grounds that they did not accurately reflect the city’s ambient air quality. At the time, V M Motghare, joint director (air), MPCB, had told this reporter that SAFAR’s devices were all placed in areas where traffic emissions were typically higher than in other places.

Experts have, however, contested this claim, saying that SAFAR’s methodology is, in fact, more rigorous than MPCB’s own.

The BMC official said that the monitors had not been relocated, they are exactly where they were. “SAFAR claimed that renaming the monitors eight years after they first started collecting data would create confusion for citizens and for researchers. Anyone seeking to do a time-series analysis of the data would get confused. So, the monitors are now renamed keeping in mind both parties’ considerations. Citizens who are looking at the SAFAR app to check AQI should know this.”

The official declined to clarify whether the request to rename the two monitors was first raised by MPCB.

Gufran Beig, founder of SAFAR, refused to comment on this matter. B S Murthy, SAFAR’s current project director, and Motghare could not be contacted for their comments.