Lok Sabha Question No. 460 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-02-05
Subject: Air Quality
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Raja Amareshwara Naik, Khagen Murmu, Manne Srinivas Reddy, Raghu Ramakrishna Raju Kanumuru

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UN-STARRED QUESTION N0. 460

ANSWERED ON 05.02.2024

## Air Quality

460. SHRI RAJA AMARESHWARA NAIK:

SHRI KHAGEN MURMU:

SHRI MANNE SRINIVAS REDDY:

SHRI KANUMURU RAGHU RAMA KRISHNA RAJU

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

- (a) whether the air quality of Delhi and other cities deteriorated sharply despite bringing into force stringent antipollution measures i.e GRAP-IV including a restriction on construction and demolition activities with immediate effect, if so, the details thereof during the last five years and current year; and
- (b)  the corrective steps being taken/results yielded along with funds sanctioned/spent till date, State-wise?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a):

During,  post-monsoon  and  winter  months,  lower  temperature,  lower  mixing  heights, inversion  conditions  and  calm  winds  lead  to  trapping  of  the  pollutants  in  the  atmosphere resulting  in  high  pollution  in  the  region.  Therefore,  deterioration  of  'Air  Quality  Index'  is observed in Delhi NCR region, generally, during winter months.

The  Graded  Response  Action  Plan  (GRAP)  is  not  a  regular  feature  but  only  an emergency  measure  and  provides  a  specific  set  of  actions  depending  on  air  pollution  levels, which  are  to  be  implemented  by  identified  agencies  for  combating  the  adverse  air  quality, particularly  during  the  winter  periods  where  owing  to  ineffective  dispersion  and  adverse climatic/meteorological  condition,  higher  levels  of  AQI  are  generally  encountered.  Stricter regulations  and  restrictions  imposed  during  the  periods  under  GRAP  help  in  averting  further deterioration of Air Quality.

Amongst  various  other  restrictions,  construction  and  demolition  activities  are  also restricted/ prohibited, due to their high dust potential, only during stage III & IV of the GRAP (i.e when air quality reaches to 'Severe (AQI>400)' and 'Severe+ (AQI>450)' category) in the entire NCR, including all dust generating/ air pollution causing activities.

Such restrictions are imposed primarily from the view point of adverse health impact and concerns of all stakeholders.

Year 2023 witnessed the best daily average AQI in Delhi barring the Covid affected very low activity year 2020 as tabulated below:

| Year           |   2018 |   2019 |   2020 |   2021 |   2022 |   2023 |
|----------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Daily Avg. AQI |    225 |    215 |    185 |    209 |    209 |    204 |

## (b):

The Government has taken several steps for the management of air quality in the country. The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched in 2019 as a long-term, time-bound national-level  strategy  to  reduce  air  pollution  levels  across  the  country  by  engaging  all stakeholders.  The  Programme  envisages  to  achieve  a  reduction  upto  40%  or  achievement  of National  Ambient  Air  Quality  Standards  in  Particulate  Matter  10  (PM10)  concentrations  by 2025-26.

NCAP focuses  on  preparation  and  implementation  of  national  level  action  plan,  state level action plans  & city level action plans of the targeted 131 cites. The action plan includes various  activities  such  as  construction  and  demolition  waste  management  facilities,  nonmotorised  transport infrastructure, green  buffers, laying of  pavements,  mechanical  street sweepers, composting units etc.

The national level plan includes the action plans of different Ministries/ Departments of Government  of  India. This includes convergence  of schemes/ programmes  of  different Ministries/  Departments,  received  action  plans  from  7  line  Ministries.  The  State  Action  Plans have been prepared by 23 States/UTs and the City Level Action Plans have been prepared in 131 cities. Further, Annual Action Plans are prepared by cities for taking measures for improvement of air quality.

Under  NCAP,  24  States/UTs  were  provided  an  amount  of  ₹  9934.40  crore  for implementation  of  State  Action  Plans  to  take  measures  to  improve  air  quality  to  achieve reduction in PM10 levels up to 40% or achievement of NationaL Standards by 2025-26.

The  State-wise  Fund  Released  and  Utilization  Details  under  the  National  Clean  Air Programme  and  15th  Finance  Commission  for  FY  19-20  to  23-24  (Till  January  30,  2024)  is given at Annexure-I.

Air  quality  performance  has  been  assessed  for  this  year.90  cities  have  shown  the improvement in air quality and 15 cities met National Ambient Air Quality Standards in terms PM10 concentrations in FY 2022-23. Further, 26 cities have achieved reduction of more than 30% and 37 cities have shown reductions in the range of 10-30% as compared to baseline of 2017-18.

The details of corrective steps taken are placed at Annexure-II.

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Annexure - I

| S. No.   | State            |   Fund Sanctioned/released (₹ in Cr) |   Fund Utilization as per PRANA (₹ in Cr) |
|----------|------------------|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
| 1        | Tamilnadu        |                               502.43 |                                    475.87 |
| 2        | Gujrat           |                               808    |                                    734.15 |
| 3        | West Bengal      |                               816.76 |                                    695.92 |
| 4        | Telangana        |                               463.54 |                                    390.6  |
| 5        | Himachal Pradesh |                                15.91 |                                     13.38 |
| 6        | Madhya Pradesh   |                               630.51 |                                    526.26 |
| 7        | Rajasthan        |                               544.66 |                                    406.44 |
| 8        | Chandigarh       |                                32.81 |                                     24.34 |
| 9        | Uttar Pradesh    |                              1846.35 |                                   1182.66 |
| 10       | Odisha           |                                74.6  |                                     46.9  |
| 11       | Bihar            |                               326.74 |                                    182.1  |
| 12       | Punjab           |                               261.69 |                                    138.35 |
| 13       | Jharkhand        |                               279.44 |                                    147.42 |
| 14       | Maharashtra      |                              1754.4  |                                    882.48 |
| 15       | Meghalaya        |                                 6.15 |                                      2.88 |
| 16       | Chhattisgarh     |                               248.39 |                                     96.26 |
| 17       | Assam            |                                54.1  |                                     20.67 |
| 18       | Jammu &Kashmir   |                               108.24 |                                     40.38 |
| 19       | Delhi            |                                42.69 |                                     10.77 |
| 20       | Uttrakhand       |                                68.28 |                                     17.12 |
| 21       | Haryana          |                                73.53 |                                     15.99 |
| 22       | Andhra Pradesh   |                               361.1  |                                     77.63 |
| 23       | Nagaland         |                                16.4  |                                      2.11 |
| 24       | Karnataka        |                               597.53 |                                     12.34 |
| Total    | Total            |                              9934.23 |                                   6143.02 |

## Steps taken by the Government to improve air quality

## I. Vehicular Emissions:

- i. Leapfrogging from BS-IV to BS-VI norms for fuel and vehicles since April, 2018 in NCT of Delhi and from 1st April, 2020 for rest of the country.
- ii. Network of metro rails for public transport are enhanced and more cities are covered.
- iii. Development of Expressways and Highways are also reducing the fuel consumptionand pollution.
- iv. Eastern Peripheral Expressway & Western Peripheral Expressway has been operationalized to divert non destined traffic from Delhi.
- v. Ban  on  all  diesel  vehicles  older  than  10  years  and  all  petrol  vehicles  older  than  15 years,in Delhi and NCR. (Hon'ble SC order dated 29.10.2018).
- vi. Environment protection charges (EPC) have been imposed on diesel vehicles withengine capacity of 2000cc and above in Delhi NCR.
- vii. Introduction of cleaner/alternate fuels like CNG, LPG, ethanol blending in petrol.
- viii. Permit requirement for electric vehicles has been exempted.
- ix. Promotion of public transport and improvements in roads and building of more bridges to ease congestion on roads.
- x. RFID (radio-frequency identity) system implemented by South Delhi Municipal
- xi. Corporation (SDMC) for collection of toll and Environment Compensation Charges from commercial vehicles entering Delhi.
- xii. Introduction of BS VI compliant vehicles across the country since April, 2020.
- xiii. Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) has been launched as an initiative to set up Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) production plants and make CBG available in the market for use in automotive fuels.
- xiv. Subsidy on e-vehicles under Faster Adoption and Manufacture of (Hybrid &) ElectricVehicles  in  India  (FAME  -II  India)  scheme  of  Ministry  of  Heavy  Industries  is provided.
- xv. Installation of Vapour Recovery System (VRS) in new and existing petrol pumps.
- xvi. Selling  gasoline  >100kl  per  month  in  million  plus  cities  and  those  selling  >300kl  per month in cities with population between 1 lakh to 1 million.

## II. Industrial Emissions:

- i. Notification regarding SO2 and NOx emission standards have been issued for ThermalPower Plants
- ii. Ban on use of pet coke and furnace oil as fuel in NCR States since October 24, 2017 and ban on use of imported pet coke in the country since July 26, 2018, with exceptionfor use in  permitted  processes  (processes  in  cement  plants,  lime  kilns  and  calciumcarbide manufacturing units).
- iii. Shifting of industrial units to PNG.
- iv. Installation of online continuous  emission  monitoring  devices  in  highly  polluting industries.
- v. Brick  kilns  shifting  to  zig-zag  technology  or  vertical  shaft  or  use  Piped  Natural  Gas asfuel in brick making to reduce pollution.
- vi. System and Procedure for Emission Compliance Testing of Retro-fit Emission
- vii. Control  Devices  (RECD)  for  Diesel  Power  Generating  Set  Engines  up  to  Gross Mechanical Power 800 kW developed.
- viii. Development of low carbon strategies across sectors such as phasing out older coal -based power plants, compliance of standards, City Gas Distribution (CGD) network,emphasis on improved power reliability in urban areas, etc.
- ix. Developing an eco-system for processing biomass/agriculture residue as fuel inindustrial applications in Delhi-NCR.
- x. Uniform and affordable PNG pricing policy for aggravating use PNG as fuel inindustrial applications in Delhi-NCR.

## III. Air Pollution due to dust and burning of waste:

- i. Notification  of  eight  waste  management  rules  covering  solid  waste,  plastic  waste,  ewaste, waste tires, bio-medical waste, C&D waste, hazardous waste and battery waste.
- ii. Setting up infrastructure such as waste processing plants.
- iii. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for plastic and e-waste management has been mandated on producers.
- iv. Ban on burning of biomass/garbage.
- v. Bio-mining of three dumpsites at Bhalswa, Okhla and Ghazipur is being carried out.
- vi. Under  Central  Sector  Scheme  on  'Promotion  of  Agricultural  Mechanization  for  insitumanagement  of  Crop  Residue  in  the  States  of  Punjab,  Haryana,  Uttar  Pradesh  and NCTof Delhi', agricultural machines and equipment for in-situ crop residue managementare promoted with 50% subsidy to the individual farmers and 80% subsidy forestablishment of Custom Hiring Centers.
- vii. The Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) on 17.09.2021 directed the coal-based Thermal Power plants situated up to a radius of 300 Km of Delhi to co-fire biomass-based Pellets, Torrefied Pellets/Briquettes (with focus on paddy straw) with Coal (up to 5-10%).
- viii. Guidelines  prepared  for  providing  one-time  financial  assistance  for  establishment  of paddy straw based palletization and torrefaction plants, under which individuals/entrepreneurs / companies, interested in setting up palletization and torrefaction  plants,using  only  paddy  straw  generated  in  the  NCT  of  Delhi,  States  of Punjab  &  Haryana,and  NCR  districts  of  Rajasthan  &  Uttar  Pradesh  can  submit  an application for obtaininga one-time grant on capital investment.
- ix. Guidelines  issued  for  supporting  Municipal  Corporations  of  the  states  of  Punjab, Haryana,  NCT  of  Delhi  and  NCR  districts  of  Uttar  Pradesh  and  Rajasthan,  for establishing paddy straw based briquetting plants, for use of paddy straw-based briquettes for cremation purpose only.
- x. Daily monitoring of Active Fire Events (AFEs) is done during stubble burning periodand reports  are  shared  with  Commission  on  Air  Quality  Management  in  National  Capital Region and Adjoining areas for suitable action.

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