The construction boom and exponential increase in the number of vehicles have made Bengaluru unliveable with the spike in noise and air pollution levels.
To let the city breathe easy, the state pollution control board has come up with a 48-point action plan, which has been presented to the coordination committee comprising the Transport and Road Safety department, Bruhat Begaluru Mahanagare Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Traffic Police, BMTC, Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited, Urban Land Transport and other government departments.
One of the suggestions made was that the transport department should run CNG buses. But former chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) Lakshman told Deccan Chronicle that BMTC will go ahead with its plans to run electric buses, which do not emit any greenhouse gases.
The draft plan, which has seen no objections from any government department, was prepared by Mr Lakshman when he was heading the pollution control board.
“They have to speed up the purchase of electric vehicles. The BSII and BSIII buses have to be retired and by 2020, the BMTC will have to meet the Bharat V1 emission norms,” he said.
The action plan has recommended that the transport department should completely ban the use of two-stroke vehicles and those that have run for more than 15 years. The city will also see a ban on commercial vehicles that are over 10 years old.
Areas like BTM Layout and Silk Board, where traffic is heavy, witness air and noise pollution beyond the prescribed limits. The KSPCB has directed the transport department to keep a check on high-decibel silencers that are banned. “The transport department, KSPCB and traffic police are taking these violations seriously,” he said.
Also, there have been several complaints against Emission Testing Centres (ETC) in the city and KSPCB has deliberated on checking the calibration of emission monitoring equipment once in six months.
Meanwhile, the police department has been asked to carry out a survey to identify roads that are vulnerable to traffic jams. To regulate traffic, the police have been asked to implement lane discipline strictly and to ensure that BMTC buses park at designated bus bays.
“Only a concerted effort from all departments can bring down spiralling levels of pollution in the city. We have planned to put up an Air Quality Index (AQI) display board of all stations at Hudson Circle. This awareness is important,” a KSPCB official said.
In July last year, the board had decided to grant Rs 8 lakh to the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research to study the species of trees that are tolerant to air pollution. Normally, tree leaves become rough after constant exposure to pollution. Mr Lakshman said that this effort will also help in turning the city green.
Air Quality Network DPR is yet to see the light of day
In December 2017, the BBMP had signed an MoU with C40 Air Quality Network, a global initiative to contain pollution, to install 1,000 air monitoring sensors across the city, but the Detailed Project Report (DPR) is yet to see the light of day.
“Once the DPR is ready, we will be in a position to furnish details as to how the project will be implemented. Once these sensors are installed, pollution levels can be seen real time as the equipment will be connected to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) website," said Mr Basavaraj Kabade, executive engineer, BBMP.
The palike had received a grant of Rs 20 crore for the project, which also included building a robust air quality management plan.
Mr Sanjay Sridhar, Regional Director, C40 Cities, said, “The BBMP is working on the plan. We are providing the methodology and data analytics to the Palike. Over 1,000 spots will be covered."
Experts said that the BBMP should expedite the process and also chalk out a plan on controlling pollution.
The experts opined that the devices will not help bring down the pollution levels as the city is congested with over 75 lakh private vehicles.
