City gets incentive grants of Rs 2.77 cr for air quality improvement

Lokmat News Network

Chattrapati Sambhajinagar: In a positive development,

an incentive grant of Rs 2.77 crore has been sanctioned to the city for its air quality performance recently. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB’s) Coordination Committee held a meeting to assess the Improvement in Air Quality (through XV Finance Commission) of 42 cities (having a million plus population) in the country on Tuesday.

Of the six major cities of Maharashtra, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar secures second position in the air quality performance.

The committee notified improvement in PM 10 levels and air quality index (AQI) in the financial year 2024. The names of cities (from Maharashtra) to receive incentive grants are Greater Mumbai (Rs 70.71 crore), Pune (Rs 5.47 crore), Nagpur (Rs 2.73 crore), Nashik (Rs 1.68 crore) and Vasai-Virar (Rs 1.39 crore).

Earlier, the city had PM 10 levels of 104 in 2022-23 which declined to 96 in 2023-2024 and 354 days were observed with AQI below 200. In Mumbai, PM 10 levels have improved from 112 to 93 and 361 days were observed with AQI below 200. Therefore, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has received a score of 75 and Mumbai has received a score of 100.

The success of improvement is attributed to the efforts put in by the deputy commissioner and nodal officer Ravindra Jogdand, National Clean Air Programme Consultant Dr Geetanjali Kaushik and Smart City team members. Above all, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) administrator G Sreekanth, since joining his office, has taken significant steps to keep the city's air clean and reduce air and dust pollution. He handled the environmental issue with utmost seriousness, and various projects have been initiated to ensure good air quality.

What the CSMC has done

The CSMC has undertaken numerous initiatives, including large-scale tree plantation, planting trees in medians, installing fountains in traffic islands, renovating old fountains, creating vertical gardens on main roads and in squares, removing construction debris from the streets, cleaning main roads at night using sweeping machines and washing them with water, clearing accumulated soil from roadside areas, and setting up gutters to create proper footpaths. These efforts have effectively reduced the amount of dust in the air.