The Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC) will soon set up a state-of-the-art laboratory in the city. To strengthen its sample testing machinery, the CPCC will set up it own laboratory in Paryavaran Bhawan, Sector 19 here. At present, the CPCC does not have any laboratory and is sending the samples for testing in other laboratories here.
Though the proposal to build a laboratory was mooted more than a year back, the CPCC had failed to initiate the process for the same. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has already given its consent to the UT Administration for setting up its own state-of-the-art laboratory at the ground floor of Paryavaran Bhawan.
The CPCC will now soon hire consultants to set up this lab. “CPCC would set up its own laboratory to meet the increasing demand of studying and testing samples of water and other hazardous waste material causing air pollution and other types of pollution. In the absence of its own lab, the CPCC is sending samples to other labs for testing which delays its results and the whole process of initiating action against the violators,” said a senior official of the UT Environment Department while talking to The Pioneer.
The official said, “The layout of the laboratory would be futuristic and take into consideration latest development in the field of environment laboratories. The CPCC has floated tenders to hire a consultant to get layout of its laboratory having an area around 300 sq mts to meet the MoEF requirements.
“As per the proposal, an air lab, water and water-waste labs, microbiology lab, GC lab, AAS room, distillation and autoclave room, weighting lab would be developed at the Paryavaran Bhawan. The new laboratory is expected to cost more than Rs 1 crore to the CPCC. Besides, new equipments and machine will also be procured to add precision to the tests to be done here,” added he.
The CPCC has also chalked out a plan to install a continuous ambient air quality monitoring (CAM) system in Chandigarh. The CAM system will observe eight parameters including Sulphur dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ammonia (NH3), ground level ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), benzene, subtypes of atmospheric particle matter including suspended particulate matter (SPM), respirable suspended particle (RSP particles with diameter of 10 micrometres or less i.e. PM10), fine particles (diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less i.e PM2.5) in real-time. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has given its approval to the UT Administration for the installation of this monitoring system.