Patting itself on the back for a comparatively low Air Quality Index (AQI) graph on Diwali, the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday said that concerted efforts by the civic body responsible for the significant improvement will continue through the season."The Bhopal Municipal Corporation is continuously working to keep the city pollution-free and improve air quality, implementing innovative experiments from time to time.
As a result, there has been a consistent improvement in the city’s environment and air quality," said the BMC in a brief release to the media on Friday.
During this year’s Diwali celebrations, the municipal teams deployed 21 sewage cleaning vehicles equipped with sprinklers to spray water in hotspots.
The move resulted in an AQI of 176, which is 43 per cent lower than the AQI of 309 recorded on Diwali night last year.The spraying of water followed successful experiments during the Dussehra and Dhanteras festivities.
The corporation's efforts led to a significant 46 per cent decrease in the AQI at the T.T. Nagar monitoring station.
Similarly, the reading at the Collectorate monitoring station was 140, representing a 55 per cent decrease from last year's reading of 313, while the reading at Paryavaran Bhawan was recorded at 221, a 27 per cent drop from the 304 recorded last year.
The civic body stated that the use of the water sprayers will now continue throughout the high pollution winter season.
Through the 21 sewage cleaning machines, the sewage department sprayed water to a height of approximately 40 feet at major intersections and key locations, preventing fine dust particles and other pollutants—PM2.5 and PM10—from dispersing in the air, thus improving air quality.
