Panel Recommendations to improve “Air Quality in Kerala”

Panel Recommendations to improve “Air Quality in Kerala”

Recently a joint committee to study air pollution in Kerala has been appointed by National Green Tribunal (NGT) which made several recommendations to improve air quality in Kerala.

Recommendations of the panel

(i) Installation of vapor recovery systems at fuelling stations

(ii) Retrofitting of diesel vehicles with particulate filters to improve air quality.

(iii) Promoting battery-operated vehicles and banning old diesel vehicles in a phased manner.

(iv) Greening of open areas and creation of green buffers along traffic corridors.

(v) The panel has also recommended several short term measures that include:

• Strict actions against visibly polluting vehicles (to be initiated by the Motor Vehicles Department)
• Introduction of Wet/Mechanised vacuum sweeping of roads,
• Controlling dust pollution at construction sites
• Ensuring transport of construction materials in covered vehicles.

Pollution levels in Kerala

Kerala currently only has the city of Thiruvanthapuram on record with its pollution levels, thus as it is the capital city of the region, its pollution levels will be used to gauge how the air quality of Kerala state is overall, with many more cities to be added post 2020. Thiruvanthapuram, commonly called by its former name of Trivandrum, came in with PM2.5 readings of 27.9 μg/m³ in the year of 2019. These readings are enough to put it into the higher end of the ‘moderate’ pollution bracket, a rating which requires a reading anywhere between 12.1 to 35.4 μg/m³ to be classified as such.