Lok Sabha Question No. 2152 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-08-05
Subject: Technologies to address Air Pollution
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Shri Kamakhya Prasad Tasa

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2152

TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.08.2024

## Technologies to address Air Pollution

## 2152.  SHRI KAMAKHYA PRASAD TASA:

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

- (a) whether it is a fact that air pollution is one of the biggest issues of the country, if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has taken any steps to explore and leverage the potential of other frontier country technologies to address air pollution issues;
- (c) if so, the details thereof and if not, whether there are any plans to execute any such agreement;
- (d) whether there are any signed Memorandum  of Understanding (MoUs) with neighbouring  countries  to  install  air  pollution  monitors  to  tackle  the  issue  of  air pollution based on airshed approach; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI KIRTI VARDHAN SINGH)

## (a) to (e):

Air  pollution  in  the  country  is  a  collective  result  of  multiple  factors  including  high levels  of  anthropogenic  activities  in  the  high-density  populated  areas,  arising  from  various sectors viz. Vehicular Pollution, Industrial Pollution, Dust from Construction and Demolition activities, Road and Open Areas Dust, Biomass Burning, Municipal Solid Waste burning, Fires in Landfills and air pollution from dispersed sources etc. To reduce the air pollution in the country, government has launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019. Taking into account the available international experiences and national studies, the tentative national level target under NCAP is 20%-30% reduction of particulate matter concentration by 2024. Target  has  been  revised  to  achieve  reduction  in  PM10  level  up  to  40%  or  achievement  of national ambient air quality standards (60 µg/m3) by 2025-26.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified 131 million plus/non-attainment cities (cities exceeding National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), consecutively for five  years).  City  Specific  Clean  Air  Action  Plans  have  been  prepared  and  rolled  out  for implementation in all these 131 non-attainment/million plus cities to improve the air quality. These city specific clean air action plans target city specific air polluting sources like Soil & Road Dust, Vehicles, Domestic Fuel, MSW Burning, Construction Material and Industries with short-term priority action as well as those to be implemented in a medium to longer time frame along with the responsible agencies.

Trial  of  various  new  technologies  for  air  pollution  mitigation  have  been  conducted under Environment Protection Charge (EPC) by CPCB such as Air purification units developed by  National  Environmental  Engineering  Research  Institute (NEERI),  for  traffic  junction pollution, dust suppressant for construction sites and road dust control developed by Enviro Policy Research India Pvt Ltd. (EPRI), bus roof filtration system developed by Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies (MRIIRS), medium scale air purification unit (Smog Tower) developed by IIT Bombay and Tata Projects Ltd and ionisation technology developed by S&TP Pune. Out of these technologies, Smog Tower have also been tried in China. Further, out of these technologies, results of dust suppressant were found encouraging and accordingly advisory issued for its use in Delhi-NCR. Details of the projects are enclosed as Annexure-I .

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## Annexure-I

|   S. No. | Project title                                                                                                                         | Institute/ organisation                                               |
|----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        1 | Deployment and Evaluation of air purification units for traffic junction pollution abatement in Delhi                                 | CSIR-NEERI                                                            |
|        2 | Pilot project to demonstrate the effectiveness of air pollution mitigation by Pariyayantra filtration- MRIIRS                         | Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies (MRIIRS) |
|        3 | Control of Dust Emissions using dust Suppressant                                                                                      | Enviro Policy Research India Pvt Ltd. (EPRI)                          |
|        4 | Pilot study for assessment of reducing air pollution in urban areas by using outdoor cleaning system (sometimes called as Smog Tower) | IIT Bombay& Tata Projects Ltd.                                        |
|        5 | Multiple antenna high density ion generator for pollution control in New Delhi                                                        | Science and Technology Park, Pune                                     |
|        6 | Monitoring and Evaluation of Ionization based Air Purifying Technology                                                                | IIT Delhi                                                             |