Delhi CM sets up centralised war room to monitor pollution level; ISRO, NASA onboard

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has started an initiative at war level to monitor ways to curb air pollution with the help of reports from NASA and ISRO, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Thursday.

"To control pollution in Delhi, Delhi CM has started an initiative at war level. It is not possible for one particular agency to control it so we have started a centralised war room at Secretariat that will coordinate with all agencies of Delhi to control pollution. There are three screens which will analyse the 40 real-time monitors," said Rai.

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One of the screens will monitor PM 2.5, PM 10, wind speed etc while the second screen will monitor 13 hotspots of Delhi and the third screen will monitor reports from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on pollution coming from other states. A team of 10 officials including scientists, advisors, training engineers etc will monitor and maintain this war room, the minister said. The war room will generate reports on a daily basis and will submit the same to the Environment Minister and to Chief Minister Kejriwal.

On Wednesday, anti-smog guns were deployed at large construction sites in the national capital as part of the measures to control air pollution. The air quality index (AQI) was reported at 210 and 214 in Delhi, recording in the 'poor' category, as per the data released by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee today.

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Govt halts construction work

In view of the increasing air pollution in the city, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-run Delhi government directed 6 construction and demolition sites to stop the work. Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that the government's first aim is to reduce the pollution which is caused due to dust. Over 39 cites have been identified where anti-smog guns will be used to curb the pollution level. Due to the burning of crop stubble in the neighbouring states, Delhi witnesses a spike in its pollution levels every year during winters. 

In a recent tweet, AAP wrote that the Delhi government will also use Pusa decomposers to control the deteriorating AQI level. Rai also said that the government is running the anti-dust campaign from 5-15 October. Under this "water against pollution campaign, the Environment Department has formed over 14 teams that will continuously inspect different areas of Delhi. 

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(With inputs from agency)