THE revised action plan prepared by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to control air pollution in the city seems just a cosmetic exercise to fulfill the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) directives. NGT has directed all States and Union Territories (UT) to prepare action plans under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to bring air quality standard within the prescribed limits. Following the same, NMC, with the help of MPCB, prepared an action plan for the city. The plan emphasises on many factors -- ban on use of age-old vehicles; more use of public transport; curb fuel adulteration; better parking facility; widening of roads; identification of traffic congestion hotspots and much more.

 

All the working areas mentioned in the action plan will have to be complete before November 2021. Taking into consideration the tardy pace at which projects are carried out in Nagpur, meeting the deadline seems an improbable task for the civic body. However, NMC is confident of achieving the target within the time limit. “We have initiated tendering process as per the action plan and we are confident of achieving the target till November 2021,” Shweta Banerji, Superintending Engineer, Public Health and Environmental Engineering Department, NMC, told ‘The Hitavada’. “Vehicular emission is the biggest factor for air pollution in the city and we are in contact with Regional Transport Office (RTO) to restrict age-old vehicles in the city,” Banerji said. NMC has urged Maha Metro to provide its parking lots and also included RTO for improvement of parking system in the city. However, MPCB is not sure about the civic corporation finishing the tasks within the November 2021 deadline.

 

“NMC is the implementing authority of the action plan but achieving the target within mentioned time limit will be a big challenge for it,” said Hema Deshpande, Sub Regional Officer, MPCB, Nagpur. “We will have to maintain the air quality that we achieved during lockdown period. Achieving this target is going to be a Herculean task for NMC,” Deshpande stated. As per studies, existing old and under-maintained vehicles form 10-15 per cent of total air pollution in the city. According to the action plan, BS-IV technology reduces the emission rate by over 20 per cent as compared to the previous BS-III technology. In the era of BS-VI, when Central Government is implementing latest technology in all vehicles, the revised action plan is talking about the outdated BS-IV technology. “The action plan is more focused on BS IV and explains the reduced emission norms of BS IV as compared to BS III.

 

However, in 2016 it was decided that India will directly progress from BS IV to BS VI, skipping intermediary steps. Under BS VI emission norms, petrol vehicles will have 25 per cent reduction in their NOx emission and diesel engine will have to reduce their Hydrocarbon and Nitrogen oxide emission by 43 per cent and Particulate emission by 82 per cent,” said Kaustav Chatterjee, environmentalist and Founder of Green Vigil Foundation. Talking about the time span of the action plan, Chatterjee said, “There is a difference between implementing a step and achieving the target. In revised action plan, most of the targets are to be achieved by November 2021, which looks highly optimistic. For example, FGD was supposed to be installed in all Power Plants and Old Boilers were supposed to be replaced by November 2020, but in reality, we have already missed the target,” he added.