Wake up now, or we'll be like Delhi: BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad

BENGALURU: Transport alone is contributing to 42 percent of pollution in the city, followed by 20 percent from road dust, 14 percent from construction activity, 14 percent from industries, 7 percent from diesel generators and 3 percent from domestic activities. The rate at which the city is getting polluted, sooner or later,
Bengaluru may have to experience a Delhi-like situation if we do not wake up now.

With these introductory remarks, BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad on Wednesday opened the discussion on 'pollution' at the council and requested representatives from various civic bodies and corporators to come out with solutions. He said that noise and air pollution has almost doubled in the last 10 years.

“The city already has 72.66 lakh vehicles on the road and there is a spike in the rate of new vehicles getting registered," Mr Prasad said, and asked transport department and BMTC authorities to share their plans on reducing dependence on private transport and reducing pollution levels by taking measures like phasing out old vehicles, banning trucks older than 15 years from entering the city and upgrading fossil fuel vehicles to electric and CNG engines.

Ms Omkareshwari, Joint Commissioner (e-governance and environment), said, “We are giving subsidies to upgrade 2-stroke engines to 4-stroke and electric engines.”

When senior scientific officer Nagappa said that the city has 21 air monitoring stations, Mr Prasad asked if the pollution board can set up ward-wise
monitoring stations with a live display, allowing residents in each ward to
know pollution levels in their area and take steps to reduce it.

As burning of garbage is creating a lot of pollution, Mayor Sampath Raj insisted on slapping hefty fines of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh as per National Green Tribunal orders.