To understand better the source of air pollution through systematic data generation and help come up with interventions to address these sources of pollution, Arun Duggal, an alumnus of IIT Delhi, has made a financial contribution to IIT Delhi’s Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA).
The institute said Mr. Duggal has pledged ₹5 crore for CERCA, which was inaugurated in February last year, to assist policy makers in the government dealing with air quality issues by providing scientific information and objective feedback on various pollution control measures.
Director of IIT Delhi, V Ramgopal Rao said the institute has taken many steps to address the air quality problems in Delhi by understanding the sources of air pollution through systematic data generation and validation. “Through the efforts of Mr. Duggal and the institute, we are now able to put a team together and connect them with the key government agencies to come up with technological and policy interventions to address the sources of pollution, whether it is the paddy straw burning issue in neighbouring states or addressing the vehicular pollution levels in Delhi,” Mr. Rao said.
Report
According to CERCA’s annual review report, in order to improve the air quality in Delhi-NCR, stringent measures are required in all the sectors in addition to the already planned strategies. These include substantial investments in renewable energy, electric mobility, public transportation, particularly electric buses, expanded use of gas for power generation and industry including brick kilns.
IIT Delhi also said that it was in the process of installing sophisticated Beta Attenuation Monitoring (BAM) equipment for continuous monitoring of ambient air quality in IIT campus to enable further research on air quality as well as for calibrating of other air quality monitoring equipment.
