The air quality in Mumbai on Monday morning persisted in the ‘moderate’ category with an overall air quality index (AQI) of 106, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) data. With the improved air quality in the city, the skies seemed to be partially cloudy while for the past few days, the city witnessed smog in the air.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Bandra Kurla Complex registered an AQI of 146 while the AQI in Borivali East stood at 155, Byculla at 108, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 115, Colaba at 72, Kandivali East 122, Kurla at 120 and Mazagaon at 120 on Monday, November 20.
An official of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said, on Monday, that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is expected to visit a few areas in the city where washing of the roads has been carried out to control the air pollution, a Times of India report said.
The municipal corporation has been washing around 240 km of roads every day and is utilising 52 tankers and misting machines. Additionally, the authorities have been targeting to wash a 1,000 km stretch of roads from December 1.
“We are trying to at least wash the arterial roads such as Western and the Eastern Express Highways, SV Road, Linking Road and LBS Road”, the official was quoted as saying by TOI.
Meanwhile, CM Shinde on Saturday directed the civic body to examine the option of cloud seeding to curb air pollution. The step was previously undertaken by BMC 14 years ago to generate artificial rain with the aim of reducing pollution. As per the reports, the BMC is expected to initiate a short-term tender for cloud seeding within the coming 15 days.
According to the Times of India report, the exercise may cost around ₹40- ₹50 lakh in which the aircraft used for seeding the clouds will be utilised for about two hours.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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