Four international agencies join government efforts to fight air pollution in 102 cities

NEW DELHI: The poisonous air of Delhi may be in the news, but there is no doubt that the problem is pan-Indian. India stressed the urgent need to solve the problem across the country and signed an agreement with four global agencies, including the World Bank and the German Development Agency (GIZ), to build capacity 102 polluted cities in the country.

In addition to the World Bank and GIZ, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Bloomberg Philanthropies are the other two organizations that will help states fight against air pollution in four different geographical areas.

"We have finalized the agreements with these four agencies. They will provide technical support and help States build the capacity of their respective cities. Each agency will be assigned a specific geographic area to work with the cities, "said Secretary of State for the Union, CK Mishra, TOI.

The Center has held several rounds of discussions with these agencies over the last two months, in preparation for its plan to finalize the country's National Air Quality Program (NCAP) for 102 cities.

These are cities that do not meet national standards of ambient air quality. The list includes Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Varanasi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Patna, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Hyderabad, among others.

The NCAP, with long lead times to reduce emissions in these cities, is expected to be announced soon. It will be a long-term strategy at the national level to tackle comprehensively the growing problem of air pollution across the country. Its goal is to put in place a plan to prevent, control and reduce air pollution in all 102 cities.

The largest number of cities on the list are in Maharashtra (17), followed by Uttar Pradesh (15), Punjab (9), Himachal Pradesh (7), Odisha and Madhya Pradesh (6 each), Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan (5 Karnataka (4), Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Telangana (3 each), Gujarat, J & K, Nagaland and Uttarakhand (2 each) and Jharkhand, Delhi, Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (1 each) .

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has already asked the states and territories of the Union to prepare plans by city by December 31.

"To date, 80 cities, including 17 in Maharashtra, have submitted their plans to the Central Pollution Control Committee (CPCB). An expert committee will deal with it before approving it. These plans can be returned to states if they need to be refined, "said one official.

The action plans must be consistent with the assessment of carrying capacity and the distribution of the sources of these cities in terms of vehicle pollution, industrial emissions, the magnitude of the construction activities and population density.

The fight against pollution from various sources, the increasing number of manual air quality control stations, the extension of the network of monitoring stations of the quality of the air and ambient the creation of an air quality information center for the analysis, interpretation and dissemination of data via GIS platforms will be one of the key elements of the project. NCAP.

It will have a mechanism to develop a public complaint handling portal for air pollution. Cities will need to develop infrastructure to report any visible air pollution on a web portal via email and SMS.