Lok Sabha Question No. 63 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-12-15
Subject: Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitors
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: SHASHI THAROOR, A.P. JITHENDER REDDY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UN-STARRED QUESTION N0. 63

TO BE ANSWERED ON 15.12.2017

## Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitors

## 63. DR. SHASHI THAROOR:

## SHRI A.P.JITHENDER REDDY:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  is  aware  that  the  air  quality  breaches  National  Air  Quality Index (NAQI) standards in most of the north Indian States throughout the year and get to 'severe and poor' during winter and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether  there  are  adequate  Continuous  Ambient  Air  Quality  Monitoring  Stations (CAAQMS)  in  all  districts  in  the  north  Indian  States  to  monitor  the  air  quality standards;
- (c) if  so,  the  details  thereof,  State/  UT-wise  including  Punjab,  Haryana,  Bihar,  Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand;
- (d) the details of States/UTs and State Capitals in the country which have no CAAQMS along with the reasons for the same;
- (e) the  details  of  the  criteria  that  is  put  in  place,  if  any,  in  deciding  the  cities  where  a CAAQMS has to be placed along with the future plans of the Government regarding increasing the number of CAAQMS; and
- (f) whether the Government has released funds for installation of CAAQMS and if so, the details thereof during the last three years?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (DR. MAHESH SHARMA)

(a) The Air Quality Index (AQI) for the current year indicates that AQI of most cities of north Indian  States  were  in  the  range  of  Moderate  to  Very  Poor  Category  with  some  values  in severe  categories  as  observed  in  Delhi,  Faridabad,  Gurgaon,  Agra,  Ghaziabad,  Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi and Patna.

(b)  to  (e)  Currently  there  are  86  Continuous  Ambient  Air  Quality  Monitoring  Stations (CAAQMS) installed covering 57 cities in the country. Expansion of CAAQMS is ongoing process. The number of these stations is not adequate for all these cities, since the ambient air quality needs to be averaged for the multiple locations to be of  representative character. The details  of  CAAQMS  for  all  States  including  Punjab,  Haryana,  Bihar,  Uttar  Pradesh,  West Bengal and Jharkhand are annexed at Annexure-I .The details of States/UTs (State Capitals) having no CAAQMS are annexed at Annexure-II.

The criteria for siting CAAQMS stations in urban areas is based on population of the city, available  resources  and  site  specific  parameters  such  as  size  of  the  area  to  be  covered, variability in pollutants concentration etc. In future, the number shall become larger as more stations are set up to strengthen the existing monitoring network.

(f) Details  of  funds  released  by  Government  during  last  three  years  for  setting  up  of CAAQMS are given at Annexure-III.

*****

## ANNEXURE-I

ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (b)  to  (e)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  63  DUE  FOR  REPLY  ON  15.12.2017  REGARDING 'CONTINUOUS AMBIENT AIR QUALITY MONITORS' BY DR. SHASHI THAROOR; SHRI A.P.JITHENDER REDDY, HON'BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

## Status of CPCB's CAAQMS Network

|   S. No | State          | City                |   Status of CAAQMS Installed |
|---------|----------------|---------------------|------------------------------|
|       1 | Andhra Pradesh | 1.Vijaywada         |                            1 |
|       1 | Andhra Pradesh | 2.Vishakhapatnam    |                            2 |
|       1 | Andhra Pradesh | 3.Tirupati          |                            1 |
|       2 | Bihar          | 1.Patna             |                            1 |
|       2 | Bihar          | 2.Gaya              |                            1 |
|       2 | Bihar          | 3.Muzafarpur        |                            1 |
|       3 | Gujarat        | 1.Ahmedabad         |                            1 |
|       3 | Gujarat        | 2.Jamnagar          |                            1 |
|       4 | Haryana        | 1.Faridabad         |                            1 |
|       4 | Haryana        | 2.Panchkula         |                            1 |
|       4 | Haryana        | 3.Rohtak            |                            1 |
|       4 | Haryana        | 4.Gurugram          |                            1 |
|       5 | Jharkhand      | 1.Jharia            |                            1 |
|       6 | Karnataka      | 1.Bengaluru         |                            5 |
|       7 | Kerala         | 1.Tiruvanthapuram   |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 1.Mumbai            |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 2.Pune              |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 3.Solapur           |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 4.Nagpur            |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 5.Nashik            |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 6.Dombivali         |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 7.Chandrapur        |                            2 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 8.Aurangabad        |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 10.Navi Mumbai      |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 2.Angul-Talcher     |                            1 |
|       8 | Maharashtra    | 3.Jharsugda         |                            1 |
|       9 | Punjab         | 1.Amritsar          |                            1 |
|       9 | Punjab         | 2.Ludhiana          |                            1 |
|       9 | Punjab         | 3.Mandi Gobind Garh |                            1 |
|      10 | Rajasthan      | 1.Jaipur            |                            3 |
|      10 | Rajasthan      | 2.Jodhpur           |                            1 |
|      10 | Rajasthan      | 3.Bhiwadi           |                            1 |
|      10 | Rajasthan      | 4.Alwar             |                            1 |
|      10 | Rajasthan      | 5.Ajmer             |                            1 |
|      10 | Rajasthan      | 6.Kota              |                            1 |
|      10 | Rajasthan      | 7.Pali              |                            1 |
|      10 | Rajasthan      | 8.Udaipur           |                            1 |
|      11 | Tamil Nadu     | 1.Gummidipoondi     |                            1 |
|      11 | Tamil Nadu     | 2.Kodungaiyur       |                            1 |
|      11 | Tamil Nadu     | 3.Koyambedu         |                            1 |

| S. No   | State         | City        |   Status of CAAQMS Installed |
|---------|---------------|-------------|------------------------------|
| S. No   | State         | 4.Royapuram |                            1 |
| S. No   | State         | 5.Perungudi |                            1 |
| S. No   | State         | 6.Chennai   |                            4 |
| S. No   | State         | 7.Tuticorin |                            1 |
| 12      | Telangana     | 1.Hyderabad |                            6 |
| 13      | Uttar Pradesh | 1.Varanasi  |                            1 |
| 13      | Uttar Pradesh | 2.Kanpur    |                            1 |
| 13      | Uttar Pradesh | 3.Agra      |                            1 |
| 13      | Uttar Pradesh | 4.Lucknow   |                            4 |
| 13      | Uttar Pradesh | 5.Ghaziabad |                            1 |
| 13      | Uttar Pradesh | 6.Noida     |                            1 |
| 13      | Uttar Pradesh | 7.Muradabad |                            1 |
| 14      | West Bengal   | 1.Kolkata   |                            2 |
| 14      | West Bengal   | 2.Howrah    |                            1 |
| 14      | West Bengal   | 3.Haldia    |                            1 |
| 14      | West Bengal   | 1.Durgapur  |                            1 |
| 15      | Delhi         | 1.Delhi     |                           10 |

## ANNEXURE-II

ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (b)  to  (e)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  63  DUE  FOR  REPLY  ON  15.12.2017  REGARDING 'CONTINUOUS AMBIENT AIR QUALITY MONITORS' BY DR. SHASHI THAROOR; SHRI A.P.JITHENDER REDDY, HON'BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

## States/UTs (State Capitals) having no CAAQMS

1.  Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Port Blair)
2.  Arunachal Pradesh (Itanagar), Assam (Dispur)
3.  Chhattisgarh (Naya Raipur)
4.  Dadra and Nagar Haveli (Silvassa)
5.  Daman & Diu (Daman)
6.  Goa (Panji)
7.  Himachal Pradesh (Shimla)
8.  Jharkhand (Ranchi),
9.  Lakhsadweep (Kavaratti)
10.  Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal)
11.  Manipur (Imphal)
12.  Meghalaya (Shillong)
13.  Mizoram (Aizwal)
14.  Nagaland (Kohima)
15.  Tripura (Agartalla)
16.  Sikkim (Gangtok)
17.  Odisha (Bhubneshawar)
18.  Puducherry (Puducherry)
19.  Uttarakhand (Agartala).

ANNEXURE-III

ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (f)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  63  DUE  FOR  REPLY  ON  15.12.2017  REGARDING 'CONTINUOUS AMBIENT  AIR  QUALITY  MONITORS'  BY  DR.  SHASHI  THAROOR; SHRI A.P.JITHENDER REDDY, HON'BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

## Status of Setting up of CAAQM Stations in Million Plus Cities and Critically Polluted Areas

| S. No             | Name of SPCB      | No(s). of CAAQMS   | Fund Released in Lakhs   | Name of Station     | Fund Released in Lakhs   | Name of Station                   | Total funds released in Lakhs   |
|-------------------|-------------------|--------------------|--------------------------|---------------------|--------------------------|-----------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|                   |                   |                    | MILLION-PLUS CITIES      | MILLION-PLUS CITIES | CRITICALLY               | POLLUTED AREAS                    | (Rs.)                           |
| 1.                | Maharasht ra      | 05                 | 110.00                   | Nagpur* Nashik*     | 165.00                   | Dombivali; Aurangabad; Chandrapur | 275.00                          |
| 2.                | Punjab            | 03                 | 55.00                    | Amritsar*           | 110.00                   | Mandi Gobindgarh; Ludhiana        | 165.00                          |
| 3.                | Odisha            | 02                 | -                        | -                   | 110.00                   | Angul Talcher; Jharsuguda         | 110.00                          |
| 4.                | Uttar Pradesh     | 02                 | -                        | -                   | 110.00                   | Ghaziabad; Noida                  | 110.00                          |
| 5.                | Rajasthan         | 01                 | -                        | -                   | 55.00                    | Bhiwadi                           | 55.00                           |
| 6.                | Andhra Pradesh    | 01                 | 55.00                    | Vijayawada *        | -                        | -                                 | 55.00                           |
| Total = 06 States | Total = 06 States | 14 CAAQMS          | 220.00                   | 04 Cities           | 550.00                   | 10 cities                         | 770.00                          |