Ghaziabad city: Pollution takes a break in the first four months of 2023

The last time Ghaziabad City saw such a clean period was in the lockdown year of 2020

The first four months (January-April) of 2023 have treated Ghaziabad City well in terms of pollution with the city recording 70 days of “good” to “moderate” air quality index (AQI), as compared to corresponding periods in the previous years, said officials of the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) on Thursday.

In the 2022 report by IQAir, the Ghaziabad city ranked more favourably at the 11th spot. (Sakib Ali /HT Photo)

The last time Ghaziabad City saw such a clean period was in the lockdown year of 2020 when it recorded 58 days of “good” or “moderate” air quality, when the AQI was between 0 and 200.

This is quite an improvement, UPPCB officials said, considering that Ghaziabad City was ranked the second-most polluted city in the world in 2021, after Bhiwadi in Rajasthan, on the World Air Quality Report prepared by Switzerland-based organisation IQAir.

In the 2022 report by IQAir, the city ranked more favourably at the 11th spot.

According to the UPPCB records, the city recorded 23, 28, 58, 21, 29 and 70 days of 0-200 AQI during the first four months of the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.

“Such a high number of days with low AQI is being witnessed in the city for the first time in six years. This has resulted due to meteorological conditions, switching of industrial units to cleaner fuel and the completion of major infrastructure projects such as the Delhi-Meerut Expressway and others,” said Utsav Sharma, regional officer of UPPCB.

The six-month period of the graded response action plan (Grap) from October to March was also the best in 2022-23. The figures from the UPPCB indicate that the average AQI stood at 362, 320, 295, 336, 275 and 239 during the Grap period of 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, respectively.

“The construction of regional rapid transit system project is still under way on the Delhi Meerut Road and there is also a need to improve road conditions in different industrial areas. Once these issues are sorted, the conditions will improve further,” Sharma said.

Although the records indicate lower pollution levels in 2023 (January-April), the average PM2.5 levels stood on the higher side at 84.94 μg/m3 while the average PM10 levels also remained more than two times higher than the prescribed limit at 204.5 μg/m3.

The national safe limit for PM10 is 100μg/m3 while it is 60μg/m3 for PM2.5.

During the four-month period (January-April) in 2018-2022, the average PM2.5 levels stood in range of 108.75-162 μg/m3 while the PM10 levels stood in range of 191-356 μg/m3.

“The PM10 and PM2.5 levels have always remained high in the city and they hardly go below the standard limits. The ground level enforcement of pollution norms still lacks sting, and there is a need for more air quality monitoring stations across the city to get a comprehensive picture of the actual pollution levels,” said Sushil Raghav, a city-based environmentalist.

The city at present has only four monitoring stations in Vasundhara, Indirapuram, Sanjay Nagar and one in Loni.

“There is still the huge problem of traffic congestion and road dust and even then only lenient action is taken against polluters. The reduced levels this year are more due to favourable meteorological conditions than better enforcement. Grap-like activities should continue round the year and not just during the winter season,” said Akash Vashishtha, a city-based environmentalist.