Lockdown months of April, May see improved air quality in city: BMC

The lockdown months of April and May saw 2020’s cleanest air quality in Mumbai, throughout nine locations where air quality was monitored, data released by the Brihanmumbai

The lockdown months of April and May saw 2020’s cleanest air quality in Mumbai, throughout nine locations where air quality was monitored, data released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday evening, showed. The data measured levels of five air pollutants between January and May across the suburbs and island city.

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Areas of Chembur, Bhandup, Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), Colaba, Andheri, Malad, Mazagaon, Worli and Borivli, reported satisfactory or moderate air quality in April and May, whereas the air quality was poor or very poor in January, February, and March.

BMC gathered data from its three manual stationary air quality monitoring stations, four automatic mobile air quality monitoring stations, and nine System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) operated monitoring stations to study the concentration of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3). Levels of these pollutants dipped in April and May, in comparison to January, February, and March.

Levels of PM10 (smoke, dirt, and dust from factories and roads) fell from 94-205 microgrammes/cubic metre (µg/m3) on average across Mumbai between January and March, to 27-68µg/m3 in April and May. Similarly, PM2.5 (smaller particulate matter from burning garbage or from vehicle exhaust) levels reduced from 48-127µg/m3 to 12-40 µg/m3 for the same periods. Concentrations of the other air pollutants also fell.

In April, Bhandup, BKC, Colaba, Andheri, and Mazagaon recorded satisfactory air quality, while Malad, Worli, and Borivli recorded moderate air quality. In May, Colaba, Worli, and Mazagaon recorded satisfactory air quality, whereas Borivli, Malad, Andheri, and Bhandup recorded moderate air quality.