The city will get 12 more air quality monitors before the winter, according to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), which has already finalised three agencies for setting up these stations. These air monitors will also display the levels of PM 10 and PM 2.5. New machines are being installed as part of the pilot project, and the authority might increase the number of monitors eventually for a better analysis of air quality across the city.

The three agencies that have been finalised by the authority are Airveda Technologies, Skymet Weather Services and Purelogic Labs India. Airveda, according to GMDA officials, will set up air monitoring machines in sectors 38, 39, 46 and 47 (Bakhtawar Chowk), Acme Chowk (Wazirabad Village Mor), TDL Bio-Diversity Park and Medicity.

Similarly, Skymet will install monitors at Kanhai Village T Point, Sector 31- 41 crossing, Sector 40-45 junction near Cyber Park, Sector 40-41 junction and Sector 40-45 crossing. Purelogic will set up monitors at World SPA, Sector 30-31 T-point, Tau Devi Lal Park, Leisure Valley Park and Aravali Biodiversity Park.

“The expenses of installation will be borne by the agencies as part of their CSR initiatives. The private players will share the air quality data with the development authority on a real-time basis,â€_x009d_ said a GMDA official. He also said a pact would be signed with air quality monitoring (AQM) partners in due course. Meanwhile, the three partners will start the work at the five sites allocated to them for testing the feasibility.

All these sites have been identified under the smart city project and will be shared with the monitoring agencies. The GMDA official told TOI that normally 50 watt power supply would be required to operate an air quality monitoring station, and the authority would arrange for the same. However, wherever it is not possible, the SIM-based/solar-based sensors will be installed.

GMDA sources said around 200 air quality monitors would be installed at the locations where CCTV cameras were set up. These monitors will be installed in phases later.

TOI had earlier reported that GMDA would install 15 new air monitoring stations across the city in order to ensure better pollution monitoring and control mechanism. According to the officials, the two stations aren’t enough to monitor the air quality levels, and hence more stations are the need of the hour. Given that the cost of installing air monitoring stations is quite high, the stations will only monitor PM 2.5 and PM 10, said sources.

Times of India