The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) will add 25 ambient air quality monitoring stations to its network in the State and the data updates will be available online.
Data available on website
“Already the public can see Chennai data on the Air Quality Index of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The manual readings from stations in Chennai are available on the TNPCB website,” said an official.
The equipment will monitor and analyse pollutants including carbon monoxide, sulphur-di-oxide, ozone, nitrogen-di-oxide, ammonia, and particulate matter of 2.5 and 10 micron sizes.
To obtain precise data, meteorological conditions including wind direction, wind speed, vertical wind speed, barometric pressure, ambient temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, rainfall monitor would also be recorded at the 21 towns cities.
Two stations
Vellore, Cuddalore, Trichy and Kancheepuram will each get two stations.
While places like Tiruvallur, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tirunelveli, Dindigul, Thanjavur, Tiruppur, Krishnagiri, Ooty, Ramanathapuram, Namakkal, Ariyalur, Karur, Pudukkottai, Virudhunagar and Nagapattinam will each get one station.
Recently, the Board has called for tenders from manufacturers, who have enough experience to install, maintain, monitor and upload data in the required websites for a period of five years.
This follows the announcement made by the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the Assembly.
The board currently has over 10 monitoring stations in and around Chennai. Under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme, it monitors pollution levels at Coimbatore (three locations), Tuticorin (three locations), Madurai (four locations) and Salem (two locations).
Through its Care Air Centre pollution levels in red category industries are constantly monitored.
In case of any increase in the levels of pollutants the industry is directed to take steps immediately.
The board currently has over 10 monitoring stations in and around Chennai
