Delhi To Have 3 More Air Quality Monitoring Stations

NEW DELHI, March 28: The city is set to have three more monitoring stations and one mobile van to constantly monitor air quality, the government today announced while enunciating steps to combat spiralling air pollution in the budget for 2016-17. It also earmarked Rs 137 crore for a long pending project under which LED screens will display pollution levels, public awareness messages and real-time traffic information at public places across the national capital. "We are constantly monitoring the pollution levels on a real-time basis and have installed six Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations in Delhi. It is proposed to increase it to nine. In addition, one Mobile Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Van is also proposed," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in the House. The existing monitoring stations are located at Anand Vihar, Mandir Marg, Punjabi Bagh, IGI Airport, Civil Lines and RK Puram. Significantly, the government also doubled the one time fixed subsidy for e-rickshaws registered by the Transport Department to Rs 30,000. It proposed two elevated BRT corridors, one along Anand Vihar Terminal to Peeragarhi (East-West Corridor - 29 km) and the other from Wazirabad to Airport (North-South Corridor 24 km), which may divert traffic from the city's major arterial roads. Rs 100 crore has been set aside for the "Comprehensive Maintenance of Roads" scheme which includes vacuum cleaning of roads, routine washing and cleaning of street furniture and signages and collection of debris through mechanical sweepers. "One of the major factors contributing towards air pollution is the dust raised by vehicles running on roads. Manual sweeping of roads contributes to air pollution as fine dust particles do not settle down during sweeping and remain suspended thereafter," Sisodia said. Car free days and the odd-even scheme also found mention in Sisodia's budget speech. The car rationing scheme is set to make a come back on April 15 for a period of fifteen days. -PTI