Ghaziabad: The regional officials of UPPCB for Ghaziabad and Noida, which are among the 132 cities in the country selected for the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi, who will help the twin cities combat the rising air pollution. The contract was signed in the presence of Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar at New Delhi on Friday.

The NCAP is a long-term and time-bound national level strategy to tackle air pollution across the country in a comprehensive manner. It has targets to achieve 20% to 30% reduction in particulate matter concentration by 2024 with 2017 as the base year. As part of the programme, 132 cities have signed MoUs with expert institutions for executing planned action in a time-bound manner to tackle air pollution. Both Ghaziabad and Noida are also on the list of non-attainment cities in Uttar Pradesh having high levels of air pollution. Officials of the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) said abatement plans, comprising short-term and long-term measures, have been prepared to tackle air pollution.

“The IIT experts will help the two cities with technical support and identify sources and methods required for tackling pollution. The action plans are all ready. The experts will help the authorities in prioritising the measures which can be taken up swiftly and also in a cost-effective manner. We hope officials start discussions so that some measures can be prioritized and implemented before winter,” said Dr Sagnik Dey, assistant professor from IIT- Delhi, who will be coordinating with the officials of the two cities. “Now that the MoUs have been signed, we will start with implementation of our air pollution abatement plan,” said Praveen Kumar, regional officer of UPPCB, Noida, who was present when the MoUs were signed.

UPPCB officials from Ghaziabad said they, along with officials of the municipal corporation, will hold discussions with IIT experts. “The experts from IIT Delhi will provide technical expertise and also help us fine tune our air-pollution abatement plan. We are expecting to implement the plan before winter,” said Utsav Sharma, regional officer of UPPCB, Ghaziabad. A corpus of ?60.5 crore has been provided to the Ghaziabad municipal corporation from the 15th Finance Commission exclusively for implementing measures and raising the infrastructure to reduce air pollution.

M S Tanwar, commissioner of Ghaziabad municipal corporation, said the civic administration has formed an air- quality management cell and a city-level monitoring cell to implement the measures chalked out in the abatement plan and monitor the air quality. “Apart from the two cells, IIT-Delhi will be our technical partner in implementing the air pollution abatement plan. We are committed to procure infrastructure with the funds made available to us for air pollution abatement measures and hope that they are implemented before the graded response action plan comes into effect,” said Tanwar.

As part of the air pollution abatement plan, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation has proposed redevelopment of 200 parks, development of city forest, roadside paving, besides purchasing jetting machines and anti-smog guns. Conversion of diesel vehicles to CNG and installation of 30 air-purifiers at major markets across the city are among the other measures that will be implemented.

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