Gurugram to get nine air quality monitors to check pollution - Hindustan Times
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Gurugram to get nine air quality monitors to check pollution

BySuparna Roy, Gurugram
Oct 11, 2021 10:51 PM IST

For better tracking of ambient air quality and monitor pollution, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) is working on installing real-time air quality display monitors at nine locations in the city where outdoor air purifiers are already installed

For better tracking of ambient air quality, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) is working on installing real-time air quality display monitors at nine locations in the city where outdoor air purifiers are already installed, officials said on Monday.

Under Project Air Care, 71 outdoor air purifiers or wind augmentation purifying units (Wayu), were installed in November last year. Now, air quality monitors will be installed at these locations to check pollution. (HT Archive)
Under Project Air Care, 71 outdoor air purifiers or wind augmentation purifying units (Wayu), were installed in November last year. Now, air quality monitors will be installed at these locations to check pollution. (HT Archive)

Further, the authority will also install 48 more such air purifiers in the city in the coming months.

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Under Project Air Care, 71 outdoor air purifiers or wind augmentation purifying units (Wayu), were installed in November last year at Sikanderpur Metro station, Arya Samaj Chowk, GMDA office, Iffco Chowk, Max Hospital Road, Bakhtawar Chowk, Medanta Hospital Road, AIT Chowk and Sector 54 Chowk Metro station.

Subhash Yadav, head of the urban environment division, GMDA, said, “As it is difficult to check whether the devices are being cleaned on time, whether the air quality is actually improving or when the data is being collected, we have asked the partnering agencies to install low-cost sensors along with the purifiers from which data will directly be available with us at the GMDA dashboard. Only then it makes sense to go ahead with the next phase of the project, where 48 more such devices are to be installed in the city.”

Officials said that the range of efficacy of these devices lies between 35 and 50%. This means that when the device is turned on, it can reduce at least a third of the total dust pollution load, if not more, in an area of 500 square metres.

However, experts working and tracking air pollution said that a method like this does not work outdoors as the volume of ambient air is too much for these devices to be effective.

Abhishek Srivastava, a city-based environmental engineer, said, “A concept like this can work only in closed spaces where there is limited volume of air, but in the open, such machines do not work. Traffic cross-sections are usually breezy as cars keep pushing the air, making these air purifiers redundant. Rather, what can work is to ensure that is there is lesser dust around traffic cross-sections by increasing plantation, holding the soil and better traffic movement.”

The purifiers have been designed and developed by researchers at the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Neeri) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Meanwhile, the air quality index in the city remained in the moderate zone for a second consecutive day on Monday after deteriorating to the poor zone of the Central Pollution Control Board’s air quality index on Saturday.

The city recorded an AQI of 152 with PM 10 and PM 2.5 as the prominent pollutants.

Over the next two to three days the air quality is likely to improve marginally but largely remain in the moderate category, according to a weather bulletin issued for Delhi-NCR by the Air Quality Early Warning System. On Wednesday, the predominant surface wind is likely to be coming from the northwest direction of Delhi, with wind speed 8-16 kmph, mainly clear sky and mist in the morning predicted. Usually, winds coming from the northwest direction carry pollutants along with it, leading to a dip in air quality.

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