MPCB to install 15 mobile air quality monitors across Maharashtra

MPCB last week floated a request for proposal (RFP) inviting prospective concessionaires to bid for the project, which is expected to be rolled out in the first half of 2022, according to officials privy to the development.

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) plans to install 15 mobile continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) at key locations across the state, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune and others. MPCB last week floated a request for proposal (RFP) inviting prospective concessionaires to bid for the project, which is expected to be rolled out in the first half of 2022, according to officials privy to the development.

The mobile air quality monitors will be fitted with continuous automatic monitoring devices for carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NO,NO2, NOx), beta attenuation gauges to measure PM2.5 and PM10 pollution levels. (HT FILE)

The 15 air quality monitors will be housed in Bharat Stage-IV compliant trucks which will be stationed outside various regional offices of MPCB in at least eight districts, according to tender documents reviewed by Hindustan Times. They will be fitted with continuous automatic monitoring devices for carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NO,NO2, NOx), beta attenuation gauges to measure PM2.5 and PM10 pollution levels, and a BTX analyser to measure atmospheric concentrations of other pollutants including benzene, toluene ethyl benzene, and three isomers of xylene.

They will also be fitted with instruments to measure meteorological parameters such as wind direction, wind speed, ambient temperature, relative humidity, rainfall and solar radiation.

Once a year, at three days’ notice, the entire unit and its operations will be subject to audit by MPCB to ensure quality control. Other locations shortlisted for installation of mobile CAAQMS include Chandrapur, Amravati, Kolhapur, Nashik, Aurangabad and Nagpur.

VM Motghare, director (air quality) at MPCB, did not comment when contacted on Tuesday. However, a regional officer with MPCB aware of the development said, “These mobile stations will be located primarily outside regional offices of MPCB, where they will operate on a routine basis and take air samples every 15 minutes or so. The data will also be relayed to the Central Pollution Control Board’s servers so that it can be used to generate a more accurate air quality index. At the discretion of regional officers, the units may be deployed elsewhere. For example, if there is a fire somewhere and we want to assess the air pollution, we can move the unit elsewhere temporarily.”

The official also said that this is the second time in a year that tenders for the project are being invited. “The tenders for the same were first released in August 2020, and four bidders had come forward, but the commercials could not be worked out. Hence the tenders are now being re-invited and the bid should be awarded sometime in late September-early October. Once awarded, the concessionaire will have a timeline of 180 days to start operations,” the official said.

Mumbai’s currently has 30 air quality monitoring stations — 15 under MPCB, 10 under the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), and five under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). In addition to these, MPCB has proposed to install three more stationary CAAQMS in Navi Mumbai, Kalamboli, Kharghar and Taloja.