With air pollution becoming a major health problem across the country, the Environment Ministry is looking towards latest technologies to tackle the menace as well as improve the air quality.
On Monday, in a meeting chaired by Union Environment Secretary CK Mishra, it was decided that the Department of Science and Technology (DST) will take the lead on technology interventions for possible use before the onset of winter. They should provide the results of their assessments in 2 weeks, so that pilots could be quickly rolled out.
Similarly, an expert group will be constituted, which will provide its recommendation in a month’s time on early warning system, including dissemination protocol and application of satellite based measurement for improving air quality information and management, said a statement here.
The National Physical laboratory (CSIR-NPl) will be the certification agency for air quality measurement instruments. Certification of PM2.5 and PM10 volume samplers will commence from September.
The meeting also deliberated on likely use of satellite-based Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data for estimating groundbased PM2.5 levels, establishing early warning system and dissemination protocol to inform public and enforcing agencies about episodic high pollution events in advance, as per the statement.