Mumbai: The BMC will commission the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS) at five locations in Mumbai next month. The civic body has already started installing the CAAQMS in Sewri, Pant Nagar in Ghatkopar, Govandi, Charkop in Kandivali and Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan, at a cost of Rs6.9 crore.
Currently there are 20 CAAQMSes in Mumbai. Eleven of them are monitored by the pollution control board, while nine are operated by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, a joint project of IIT-M and India Meteorological Department.
Three years ago, when the city was experiencing bad air quality, the BMC came up with the idea of installing these systems, as part of its mandate to increase the number of Air Quality Index (AQI) monitoring stations under the Mumbai Climate Action Plan.
However, the project was delayed because of the Covid -19 pandemic. The BMC has also appointed the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute to carry out a study for the identification of air pollution hotspots in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. It is expected to be completed in 12 months.
Mumbai recorded worse air quality than Delhi between November 2022 and February 2023.
