New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said on Saturday that a meeting was held with stakeholders to explore innovative technologies and interventions to tackle pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR), with a focus on reducing emissions and improving air quality monitoring.
Speaking to IANS, Sirsa said several promising ideas emerged during discussions, including technologies to minimise pollution from crematoriums and the use of affordable hyper-local air quality monitoring sensors.
“Today, a meeting was held with stakeholders regarding an Innovation Challenge related to pollution in the NCR. We discussed new innovations and interventions that could help tackle Delhi’s pollution. Several good suggestions emerged,” the Minister added.
He highlighted technological solutions that could significantly reduce emissions from crematoriums.
“One of the ideas discussed was how pollution from crematoriums could be brought down to zero or emissions reduced by more than 95 per cent,” Sirsa said.
The Minister also emphasised the potential of affordable air quality sensors to identify pollution sources at the local level.
He said both government-installed monitoring systems and cheaper sensor technologies were now available to collect detailed information on air quality.
“These technologies can help us gather hyper-local information about pollution sources and identify where the pollution is coming from,” Sirsa added.
The discussions come amid concerns over deteriorating air quality in Delhi as winter approaches, a period when pollution levels typically rise due to weather conditions, vehicular emissions, dust and other contributing factors.
An air quality index (AQI) reading of 187 on October 4 was reported as the highest four-day average for the corresponding period since 2020, raising concerns about another challenging winter season.
The deteriorating air quality has also heightened worries about respiratory illnesses and the long-term health consequences of prolonged exposure to pollution.
Earlier, on September 29, Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav chaired a high-level meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to review the national capital’s Air Pollution Mitigation Action Plan.
The meeting assessed measures already implemented, progress on the ground and additional interventions required to tackle pollution before and during the winter months.
Under the action plan, the ‘No PUCC, No Fuel’ initiative will be enforced at fuel stations equipped with Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems.
The measure aims to ensure that vehicles comply with the mandatory Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) requirements through awareness campaigns and enforcement.
The plan also provides for a complete ban on dust-generating demolition activities and outdoor civil construction work from November 1 to January 31.
–IANS
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