Lok Sabha Question No. 110 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-01
Subject: Air Pollution in Uttar Pradesh
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Shri Imran Masood

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 110

TO BE ANSWERED ON 01.12.2025

## Air Pollution in Uttar Pradesh

## 110.  SHRI IMRAN MASOOD:

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

- (a) whether a continuous decline has been registered in the Air Quality Index in major industrial cities of Uttar Pradesh like Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Noida, Lucknow etc.;
- (b) if so, the major steps taken by the Government to control air pollution during the last three years and the current year;
- (c) whether  the  State  Government  has  set  up  a  special  monitoring  cell  to  control  industrial pollution;
- (d) if so, the details of the structure and functioning of the said monitoring cell;
- (e) whether any concrete improvement has been registered in the pollution level as a result of these measures; and
- (f) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (f)  To control air pollution and improve air quality across the country, the Government of India has introduced several measures. One key initiative is the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in January 2019. The programme aims to improve air quality in 130 non-attainment and million-plus cities across 24 States and Union Territories through the implementation of national, state, and city-level clean air action plans.

17 cities of Uttar Pradesh are included under National Clean Air Programme for implementing city action plans. An amount of ₹ 2941.15 crore has been released to Uttar Pradesh under NCAP for implementation of air quality improvement measures as part of city action plans.

City Specific Clean Air Action Plans have been prepared by all 17 cities to implement air quality improvement measures. These plans target air pollution sources like soil & road dust, vehicular emissions, waste burning, Construction & Demolition activities, and industrial pollution.

Air quality management measures implemented in Uttar Pradesh include end-to-end pavement of 3,666 km of roads, mechanized road sweeping of 2375 km/day, greening of 2,800 acres of open spaces and greening of 366 acres along traffic corridors. Further, 25 traffic junctions have been improved to ease congestion, 37 crematoriums have been converted to cleaner fuels or equipped with pollution-control devices, and public outreach and awareness campaigns have been carried out with the involvement of youth through the 'MY Bharat' platform.

CPCB identified 13 industrial areas into 10 critically and 3 severely polluted areas in Uttar Pradesh. Action plans to address pollution in these industrial areas have been prepared by Uttar Pradesh Pollution  Control  Board  and  are  implemented  by  the  respective  industries  for  reducing  the pollution in respective industrial areas. Out of 777 industries (pertaining to 17 Red categories) located in Uttar Pradesh, 690 industries have installed Online Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (OCEMS). CPCB has issued directions to the 87 industries which have not  installed OCEMS.

Government of Uttar Pradesh has constituted Steering Committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary  and Air  Quality  Monitoring  Committee  (AQMC)  under Additional  Chief  Secretary/ Principal  Secretary,  Environment,  Forest  and  climate  Change  Department  for  monitoring  and implementation  of  clean  air  action  plans  including  industrial  pollution  and  17  cities  have constituted  City  Level  Implementation  Committee  (CLIC)  under  the  chairmanship  of  District Collector to plan and implement air pollution reduction measures.

Out of 23 cities measured for Air Quality Index (AQI), 17 cities have shown increase in good air quality days (AQI<200) in the year 2024 as compared to the year 2023. Further, the efforts under NCAP have shown 11.4-76.8% reduction in air pollution in terms PM10 levels  in all 17 targeted cities of UP in FY 2024-25 as compared to the levels of 2017-18. Three cities namely Bareilly, Varanasi and Jhansi have met the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM10 levels. Details of improvement of air quality in 17 targeted cities in Uttar Pradesh are provided at Annexure I .

*****

Annexure I Air quality improvement in 17 cities of Uttar Pradesh under NCAP in PM10 concentrations

| State         | Cities    |   Annual Average PM10 concentration in µg/m3 (in FY 2017-2018) |   Annual Average PM10 concentration in µg/m3 (in FY 2024-25) |   %improvement in FY 2024-25 compared to FY 2017-18 |
|---------------|-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|
| Uttar Pradesh | Bareily   |                                                            207 |                                                           48 |                                                76.8 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Varanasi  |                                                            230 |                                                           59 |                                                74.3 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Firozabad |                                                            247 |                                                          100 |                                                59.5 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Moradabad |                                                            222 |                                                           96 |                                                56.8 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Kanpur    |                                                            227 |                                                          102 |                                                55.1 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Agra      |                                                            202 |                                                          103 |                                                49   |
| Uttar Pradesh | Ghaziabad |                                                            285 |                                                          154 |                                                46   |
| Uttar Pradesh | Raebareli |                                                            145 |                                                           79 |                                                45.5 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Jhansi    |                                                            109 |                                                           60 |                                                45   |
| Uttar Pradesh | Lucknow   |                                                            253 |                                                          142 |                                                43.9 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Allahabad |                                                            169 |                                                           99 |                                                41.4 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Noida     |                                                            229 |                                                          149 |                                                34.9 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Gorakhpur |                                                            150 |                                                          105 |                                                30   |
| Uttar Pradesh | Gajraula  |                                                            204 |                                                          148 |                                                27.5 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Khurja    |                                                            195 |                                                          159 |                                                18.5 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Meerut    |                                                            159 |                                                          133 |                                                16.4 |
| Uttar Pradesh | Anpara    |                                                            175 |                                                          155 |                                                11.4 |

Annual National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM10 concentrations: 60 µg/m 3