OVERVIEW

1. Air quality concern and public health imperative

Air quality monitoring

Currently, there are four manual air quality monitoring stations and one real-time station in Durgapur (see Table 1: Durgapur—locations of the ambient air quality monitoring stations and the parameters monitored). The real-time monitors measure all key pollutants including particulate matter less than 10 micron size (PM10), particulate matter less than 2.5 micron size (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3). However, real-time monitoring of the more harmful particulate matter, less than 2.5 micron size (PM2.5), is limited.

2. Pollution source profile and baseline policy action

ir pollution control strategy will need baseline information on the sources and their relative contribution to ambient air pollution concentration as well as population exposure. There is currently no official study on source apportionment and source inventory to bring greater precision in the assessment of the pollution profile of the city. Once these studies are carried out in the non-attainment cities, the action plan can be further modified/refined. The action plan therefore proposes detailed source apportionment and source inventory studies.

In order to draft the current action plan, the available information on the assessment of pollution sources has been taken into consideration. The latest emission inventory for Asansol–Durgapur is available from an independent think tank called Urban Emissions, as of 2018. This study shows that the contribution of the industrial sector in this industrial town to PM2.5 is highest at 66 per cent, which is followed by dust at 11 per cent, brick kilns at 8 per cent, transport sector (6 per cent) and residential (4 per cent). The industries are the dominant source as shown by this study for four major pollutants (see Graph 6: Emission inventory for Asansol– Durgapur based on PM2.5, PM10, NOX, and SO2).