Centre to fund measures to curb air pollution in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: The Centre will release funds under the 15th Finance Commission to Hyderabad for undertaking steps to curb air pollution, said environmental science and technology special chief secretary Rajat Kumar.

He was speaking at a review meeting with officials of Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) on the action plan to reduce air pollution, e-waste and construction and demolition waste, according to a press release.

Prof. Mukesh Sharma from IIT Kanpur presented a study on the the different sources that contribute to particulate matter (PM) 10 and 2.5 pollution. He listed road dust, vehicular emissions, open burning of garbage, secondary pollutants and industries.

Based on the findings of Prof. Sharma, the air quality monitoring committee will allocate Central funds to curb pollution at source.

The board said air pollution levels in Nalgonda met the air quality standards because of the intervention by the government at various levels. Similar steps were underway in Hyderabad.

On e-waste management, the PCB said that there was improvement in the collection of e-waste from 30,000 tonnes to 44,000 tonnes from bulk consumers. The board highlighted the challenges in collecting e-waste, the main one being collection from the domestic sector and training the informal sector for scientific processing of e-waste.

They said that the construction and demolition waste management capacity has been doubled from 1,000 to 2,000 thermal depolymerization (TDP).

Neetu Prasad, TSPCB member-secretary, expert committee members Dr B. Sengupta of NEERI and Dr Asif Qureshi attended the meeting.