The city may soon have thousands of air quality sensors to provide a more accurate and real time data on air pollution. Executive Engineer BBMP Basavaraj Kabade has said that the detailed project report (DPR) is still underway.
"Once the DPR is ready we will be in a position to furnish details as to how this will be carried out. As if now we can say that with the installation of these sensors one can see the pollution levels in real time as they will be connected to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) website," he added.
On December 6, 2017, the BBMP had signed a MoU with C40 to get 1,000 air monitoring equipment which will be installed at various locations in the city.
The BBMP had received a grant of Rs 20 crore for the project that includes building a robust Air Quality Management Plan.
Regional Director C40 Cities, Sanjay Sridhar said, "BBMP is working on the plan. We are providing methodology and data analytics to the Palike. Over 1,000 spots would be covered." The experts say that not only the BBMP should expedite the process but also chalk out plan to see how pollution could be controlled.
"Each Ward will get five devices. But data will not bring down the pollution, the BBMP should see how the data could be used to bring down the pollution. There has to be a long term vision and the process certainly needs to be fastened since further delay amounts to pollution getting out of hand," said Mahesh Kashyap, visiting scientist IISc.
