Environment minister reviews air quality

Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain on Monday reviewed the air quality of the Capital in a meeting with the officials of the Environment Department and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).

The ambient air quality was found relatively better than 2016 for the same period of the year for PM 2.5 — the most prominent pollutant in Delhi air.

The assessment of Ambient Air Quality was undertaken at 16 locations — R K Puram, Mandir Marg, Punjabi Bagh, Civil Lines, Anand Vihar, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Major Dhyanchand National Stadium, Karni Singh Shooting Range, PGDAV College (Sriniwaspuri), DITE Okhla, Mother Dairy (Patparganj), ITI Vivek Vihar, ITI Jahangirpuri, DITE Wazirpur, Satyawati college (Ashok Vihar), and Shaheed Sukhdev Business college (Rohini).

Of these 16 locations, monitoring stations at five including - RK Puram, MandirMarg, Punjabi Bagh, Civil Lines and Anand Vihar are part of the already existing network and have the comparable data for last year while other 11 stations are part of a new network.

At these 11 stations, data for particulate matter (pollutants) was only collected as Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP) came into force, as it is based on particulate concentration.