Comprehensive Action Plan to check air pollution in city

LUCKNOW:To combat air pollution in the state capital, district administration held a meeting on Monday and decided to take measures to ensure that Lucknowites breathe clean air.

District magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma directed the transport department to carry out a special drive to ensure that all vehicles have ‘pollution-free’ certificate. He said vehicles plying without pollution certificate would be seized and asked officials to make all the 125 pollution checking centres in the city functional. Besides, all the 17 departments concerned were told to submit action taken report (ATR) by November 3.

The traffic department was asked to identify the 20 most congested crossings where traffic chaos is a big problem. Officials were told to ensure that no buses, tempos, etc should stop at crossings. Instead, they should halt 50 m away from the intersections to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

The district administration prepared a Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP) for reducing air pollution. Housing development department and Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) were asked to inform within a week about the under-construction projects so that these sites can be covered with green net to ensure dust particles do not contribute further to poor air quality.

It was decided that roadside dhabas and restaurants should not be allowed to use coal or wood and instead they should be encouraged to switch to use of LPG. The LMC was asked not to burn waste material in the open and carry out regular cleaning of major streets by sprinkling water. Lucknow air has already been ‘very poor’ with index value of 305 on the air quality index (AQI). And conditions are likely to deteriorate further in November, according to predictions by the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) forecasting system. An AQI between 0 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’. Lucknow’s AQI on Monday was 305, on Sunday it was 323 while on Saturday it was 328.

Authorities attribute the dip in air quality to localised factors like construction dust, vehicular pollution as well as regional factors like pollution due to stubble burning. The PM2.5 (presence of particles in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres) was recorded at 225, the highest of this season. The PM2.5, also called ‘fine particulates’, can be a matter of more serious health concern than PM10, said experts.