DPCC mobile teams to monitor ambient air quality at 74 locations

The mobile teams of Delhi Pollution Control Committee, equipped with  mobile air quality measuring van and hand-held devices, began the ambient air quality measurement exercise at 74 locations across Delhi and its bordering areas on Friday.

“These 74 locations are in addition to the six permanently fixed stations of the DPCC, which monitor ambient air quality on a real time basis regularly,” said a senior officer of the Delhi government. DPCC will monitor the ambient air quality with special reference to PM 2.5 and PM 10 air pollution parameters between 15-30 April for the second phase of odd-even plan for non-transport four wheeled vehicles, on all days except Sundays.

“The ambient air quality data will be released on a regular basis to make public aware about the dangers of air pollution,” he added. 

He further informed that the monitoring of ambient air at 74 locations will be done with the help of Light Scattering Based Technology. These locations will be monitored regularly at the same time and locations. “This monitoring includes random sampling for short durations to ascertain the trend of air quality,” added the officer. These 74 locations include all the seven entry and exit borders of Delhi. In these border areas, one sample will be taken inside Delhi (1-2 km), second sample will be on the border and third sample will be 1-2 kms inside the neighbouring state. In addition, 20 residential locations of Delhi will be monitored using manual samplers. The government is also monitoring pollution in 15 industrial areas of Delhi. At 10 locations, monitoring will be conducted to know the impact of vehicular traffic on the roads, for this a sampler will be located on the road curb and second sampler will be at about 100-150 meters away.