IIT-K starts monitoring air quality in 11 cities

KANPUR: The Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) has started monitoring the air quality of 11 cities of the country under a prestigious project of department of science and technology (DST), said an official.

“The project, lasting for five years, will cover Kanpur, Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Chandigarh, Raipur, Bhopal, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Dehradun and Delhi. Five air monitoring stations have been set up in each of these cities,” said head of department of civil engineering department at the IIT-K Dr Scahidanand Tripathi.

He said the monitoring systems have started working and the data report is available online.

“Soon a website would be developed where the data received through the stations would be uploaded,” he said.

At present, the data about particulate matter (PM-2) is being recorded.

Soon the status of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydro carbon (HC) and other dangerous gases would also be recorded, said Dr Tripathi.

Besides, during a high-level meeting held between the representatives of the Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Central Pollution Control Board on August 29 and 30 it was decided to install low cost air monitoring stations and the data received would be recorded to assess the pollution level.