17.5.19

National Clean Air Programme

Work related to the National Clean Air Programme will start in Pune by August.

Pune will be one of the four cities in the country, which will receive funding from the Swiss funding agency for the programme. Nashik, Kanpur and Lucknow are the other three cities. The programme, launched by Union government, aims to deal with issues related to air pollution in different parts of the country.

“Normally, vehicular population is considered the main reason for poor air quality. But other factors too play an important role in reducing air quality. The study is important for mitigation of the problem, so we have opted for this research,” mayor Mukta Tilak told reporters on Thursday.

She said that a meeting was held with various stake holders on Thursday. The PMC will work as the monitoring agency. Help will be sought from the Automotive Research Association of India and other agencies as well non-governmental organisations working to fight the problem of air pollution.

In Nashik, Delhi-based The Energy & Resources Institute will be the nodal agency for the project. TERI will study air pollution patterns in the city and suggest measures to improve air quality.

Representatives of various agencies met at Nashik on Wednesday to prepare a blueprint for the project. Sumit Sharma, director, TERI and Anand Shukla, senior thematic advisor from the Swiss embassy in India, held a meeting at Nashik with officials from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, Nashik Municipal Corporation and other stake-holders.

The measures suggested to improve the air quality are to be implemented by the NMC in city areas and MPCB in industrial estates in Nashik.

Switzerland-based Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation will provide technical and financial support for the various measures to be taken to improve the air quality.

Other agencies which will participate in the project are Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India, Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. The project will be implemented in two phases - first up to August 2023 and second up to 2027. The agencies have started collecting the documents and information regarding air pollution in the city. TERI is expected to submit its first report on the city to the central government by August end.

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