Soon, a monitor to show pollutants in city

NAGPUR: Though the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Neeri) has been monitoring the air quality of the city for many years as part of the national ambient air quality project and otherwise, the institute now plans to go hi-tech in the field. It has already procured a state-of-art equipment for Rs 65 lakh from Sweden which will be installed in the institute premises and will monitor all major parameters. The actual levels (live measurements) will be displayed digitally on a board which is being set up at the main entrance gate of the institute by April. Also, the data generated from the three existing monitoring units in city will be displayed. Neeri director SatishWate, sharing the details of the new initiative, told TOI that the new equipmenthas been basically brought in for research and development purpose but it willbe also used to measure the air pollutants permanently. The informationgenerated will be displayed live round the clock on an electronic boardspecially being erected for the purpose. The technology being usedin the new monitoring unit termed as 'differential optical absorptionspectrometry' is more accurate and can measure the minutest amounts of gases inthe atmosphere. "Basically the equipment has a xenon transmitter and receiver.The light emitted into the air absorbs the pollutants and comes back. Theinstruments record the absorption bands in the form of spectrograph based onwhich the quantity of each pollutants is displayed automatically on the board,"said Wate. Project advisor and air pollution control division ofNeeri and former scientist, Animesh Kumar, says that the equipment is beinginstalled to monitor levels of harmful gases like sulphur dioxide, carbondioxide, carbon monooxide, methane and other pollutants like benzene, xylene,toulene. Other routine parameters like the respiratory suspendedparticulate matter (RSPM) and suspended particulate matter (SPM) can also bemeasured by attaching another instrument with it. After theequipment gets calibrated, the data generated will be loaded on the Neeriwebsite too for information of general public as well as the scientists andother users. At present the air quality using conventional methods isspecifically measured in three areas -- commercial, residential and industrial.But recently the central pollution control board has reduced the areas to justtwo categories -- mixed zone, comprising residential and commercial, andindustrial areas as sensitive zones comprising areas with monuments andecological units like the national parks. By April Neeri will be ina position to display the information on the pollutants. Wate says thatgradually the institute will also begin to monitor other parameters liketemperature, wind speed, humidity etc.