Delhi plans on setting mesh of sensors to combat pollution

NEW DELHI: The national capital has decided to install mesh of sensors at the neighborhood level to improvise spatial grid alerting the anti-pollution body of changes in air quality levels so as to enable intervention in places which are badly hit.

These sensors will work in the same way as the automatic real-time stations in Delhi, but they will be able to pinpoint local sources of pollution, which a real-time station would not be able to detect because it covers a much greater area. “We can take corrective action based on which sensor is reporting excessive levels of pollution, such as addressing dust in the area or any type of garbage burning,” said a senior Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) official. Delhi already has 40 real-time stations under the jurisdiction of Central Pollution Control Board, Indian Meteorological Department and DPCC. The new, low-cost sensors are relatively less accurate but experts stated that the data can be utilised quite effectively for the purpose of analysis and intervention.