The Centre launched NCAP on January 10, 2019. (Representational)
India added 180 manual air quality monitoring stations since the launch of the National Clean Air Programme, increasing their number to 883 in 2022, though a lot needs to be done to achieve the target of 1,500 by 2024, according to a new analysis.
The Centre launched NCAP on January 10, 2019, to reduce PM2.5 and PM10 levels in 102 cities by 20 per cent to 30 per cent by 2024 (with 2017 being the base year). Some more cities were added to the list, while some were dropped subsequently.
Now, there are 131 cities which are called non-attainment cities, as they did not meet the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for the period of 2011-15 under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP).
In September 2022, the government set a new target of a 40 per cent reduction in particulate matter concentration by 2026.
The NCAP outlined the expansion of the NAMP network from 703 manual monitoring stations in 2019 to 1,500 stations by 2024.
While 180 stations -- 45 stations per year -- have been added to the network, a big task remains. Over 300 stations per year are required to be installed in the next two years if NCAP is to achieve its target, the report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said.
The programme also envisaged that all stations would be equipped with PM2.5 monitoring capability by 2024. However, only 360 of the existing 883 stations could monitor PM2.5 levels till financial year 2021-22, it said.
As against the target of setting up 100 monitoring stations in the rural areas, only 27 stations have been installed in Punjab and Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli till December, 2022, it stated.
Hotspot-based forecasting had to be taken up in all the 131 non-attainment cities by 2022. Only 49 cities have identified air pollution hotspots so far.
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