Indore: Air quality improvement; need to tackle air pollution & traffic simultaneously, says Mayor Bhargav

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav here on Friday said that custodians of the city need to work on both air pollution and vehicular traffic simultaneously. 

During a workshop on air quality, Clean Air Catalyst team presented its survey report for the improvement of air quality in the city.

Additional municipal commissioner Rishab Gupta, superintending engineer Mahesh Sharma, Dwivedi of pollution control board, Santosh Upadhyay of traffic police, RTO officers, Ajay Nagpure of Clean Air Catalyst and others were present at the meeting. 

After discussions, suggestions were also received from the representatives of the institutions on the survey report.

Bhargav said that the report should also have recommendations on what should be done for checking air pollution from industries. “The measures should be such that pollution level comes down without hampering the work in industries,” he added. 

He also suggested that the survey team should go to each ward and find out the problems. “How can pollution be controlled when vehicles are stranded at traffic points? Such points should also be there in the survey report,” he added.   

“Study the norms and rules of the pollution department and incorporate them too in the report. Both traffic and air pollution control should be done simultaneously,” he went on to add.

 ‘One pollution-free model ward’

The mayor said that one ward should be made a model ward, which should be free from pollution and have a smooth traffic system. “Concept of traffic management along with pollution control in the model ward should be part of the report. If we manage to make one such ward, other wards will follow suit. That way we can bring air pollution levels down in the city,” he added. 

Survey identifies sources of air pollution

A detailed survey was conducted by Clean Air Catalyst in the city on Sunday, in which the major sources of air pollution were identified based on activities and available data. The agency said that the remedies for the mitigation of air pollution were also suggested by the experts after discussing with the representatives of major institutions in the city.