At the time when pollution data base is playing pivotal roles in the Capital, ITO, one of the busiest traffic junction has no single ambient air quality monitoring station. The passenger per unit (PCU) at ITO intersection has been registered 14,290 per hour which is highest in the Capital. This means, traffic volume is very high at this junction.
It may be noted that in the Capital, the Delhi Pollution Control committee (DPCC), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), Ministry of Earth Science (MoES) and US Embassy are major air pollution monitoring agencies.
While all of the monitoring agencies have installed air pollution meters at different places in the city but none of these are having online pollution data base of ITO. Even when monitoring stations of the US Embassy and CPCB have included ITO in their list of places, the agencies show no live or average data output through their physical air monitoring devices.
Why is it essential to maintain ITO pollution databaseIJ
According to the Delhi traffic expert Dr Seva Ram, “ITO is the busiest intersection in Delhi as the passage of vehicles is enormous. Total number of vehicles in peak hours has been increased by one thousand this year .In 2015, we have analysed the number of cars passed during peak hour was 13000 per hour while number of pedestrian passage was 1800.” However, this year both the numbers have increased by one thousand, he said further.
According to environmentalist, if such numbers of cars pass through this particular intersection of ITO, then there should be precise observations, which should be monitored by the pollution control agencies.
Recently, in the international conclave of Centre For Environmental Science (CSE) Dipankar Saha, senior scientist, CPCB also said air quality data are not just the numbers but tells the level of hazardous for those people who are under the long time exposure.
This may be noted that during car rationing odd-even scheme, the manual data through light scattering technology on air quality status of ITO intersection is prepared by DPCC — state polluting monitoring agency however the agency does not have air monitoring station.
With relative high wind speed, pollutants in Delhi air have recorded marginally low as for the past three days the National Air Quality Index (NAQI) showed their presence “moderate” in their advisory report. According to SAFAR, a unit of Ministry of earth science (MoES), the level of Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 and PM 10 was at 86.2 µgm-3 and 164.2 µgm-3. At ITO point, PM 2.5 was recorded at 44 µgm-3while value of PM 10 was at 252 µgm-3, data recorded manually by DPCC.
West Delhi’s Rajouri Garden and south Delhi’s lajpat Nagar have logged a high-level of pollutants on April 22, the ninth day of the odd-even car-rationing scheme which experts maintain will have a “marginal” impact on the city’s overall air quality.
Sumit Sharma, R Suresh and Jai Malik of TERI, who are analysing the impact of ongoing curb on vehicular traffic, explained the daily fluctuations in level of pollutants are observed largely due to meteorological factors like wind speed.
“Wind speeds have been lower during the odd-even week in comparison to the week before. This is one of the reasons why pollutant concentrations were higher during the odd-even week with respect to the week before,” they said in a statement.
However, in any case, the contribution of private cars in the overall PM 2.5 (pollutants measuring around 2.5 microns) concentrations in Delhi is not large, hence only marginal PM 2.5 reductions are expected, especially in this season, they added.
According to the DPCC which is monitoring air quality of 74 locations across the national Capital daily, Rajouri Garden and lajpat Nagar had PM 2.5 at 95 and 91 micrograms per cubic metre and PM 10 at 252 and 281 micrograms per cubic metre respectively.
Their corresponding safe limits are 60 and 100 units respectively and prolonged exposure to anything beyond that is harmful.