SAFAR monitors: BMC asks IITM to fix location, maintenance issues

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has written to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, which manages SAFAR monitors in the city, to fix the location and maintenance-related issues with the monitors. The move comes days after the Maharashtra Pollution Control board (MPCB) wrote to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to disconnect the SAFAR monitors from its portal until they are re-calibrated or relocated.

BMC officials body said its environment department conducted a detailed study of all nine locations and submitted the report to IITM. The report states that the reasons for ‘high AQI’ at all these stations was lack of proper maintenance, as well as ongoing construction and renovation work close to the stations.

Ashwini Joshi, additional municipal commissioner (environment), said, “After such high AQI levels from these monitors, we requested a joint inspection with IITM which did not take place. We also requested IITM to share the annual maintenance contracts that they have signed, but they did not do so.”

“Our inspection shows some stations are close to bakeries, marble cutting units and open playgrounds, which was leading to higher AQI and creating panic amongst citizens. After corrections/calibrations at a few stations, the AQI has dropped to almost one-fourth of what it was earlier. Hence, we are asking them to fix these issues,” she added.

As per the report submitted by BMC to IITM, four stations violated the CPCB guideline that mandates that ‘the station should be away from the source and should not be directly influenced by the source. There should be no furnace or incinerator fumes.’

Other guidelines violated include a 200-metre distance between a station and an unpaved road; location of stations away from major roads, highways and traffic zones; and location of a station away from a street having traffic volume in excess of 500 vehicles per day.

An official from the BMC’s environment department said, “We conducted detailed study at all these stations and found various issues. Some stations have shrubs growing in and around them. Renovation work is ongoing close to other stations. But the major problem is that four stations need to be relocated because they are not as per CPCB guidelines.”

Hindustan Times reported on October 28 that MPCB wrote to CPCB to take off SAFAR air quality monitoring stations from the CPCB’s portal till they were recalibrated or relocated. Officials from IITM had refuted MPCB’s claim and said that all their stations were functioning well and recalibrated. “The location of SAFAR stations in each city including Mumbai is based on scientific guidelines and as per the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). The stations are distributed in different microenvironments of a city – viz, upwind and downtown areas, background area, industrialised area, residential area, and coastal area. This way, the whole city is covered, and the average is representative,” an IITM official said on October 27.

HT reached out to BS Murthy, director of SAFAR, for a comment, but there was no response from him.