The Delhi Congress on Wednesday said a facility to monitor pollutants and air quality here in real time, which was supposed to become functional on October 20, is "yet to start operations", a claim the city government termed as baseless.
The party's city president, Anil Kumar, who visited the centre, also alleged that "machines are still being procured at the supersite", despite the air quality index (AQI) reaching "severe" in several parts of the national capital.
The Delhi government, in partnership with IIT-Kanpur, has come up with a supersite, capable of monitoring various compounds, at Rouse Avenue to monitor air quality in real time and also make forecasts.
"The supersite that had to be made functional on October 20 to keep track on pollution is yet to start operations. It is still in the development stage and machines are still being procured. This is despite the AQI reaching 'severe' in many parts of the city," Kumar said.
Delhi's air quality improved marginally on Wednesday morning owing to relatively better meteorological conditions to stand at 376. The 24-hour average index was 424 at 4 pm on Tuesday, the worst since December 26 last year when it was 459, according to the Central Pollution Control Board.
An AQI of above 400 is considered "severe" and can affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing illnesses. Responding to the allegations, project in-charge Mukesh Sharma said equipment has been procured and installed. Real-time data will be shared with the public after November 10, he said.
The Delhi government's environment department in a statement said the allegations levelled by the Congress are "baseless" and that testing of equipment at the supersite has been done. "All equipment have been purchased for real-time source apportionment study. It takes about two weeks for the internal validation of all data. The process started about three to four days ago and it will take another week to complete it," Sharma said.
"Data, including on pollution compounds and real-time AQI, and forecasting data will be available to the public after November 10," he said. Environment department officials said a meeting was also chaired by the department's principal secretary on November 1 at the Delhi Secretariat in which the project in-charge gave a live demonstration on real-time data being tracked through various devices procured at the supersite.
"Some of the equipment for the facility have been imported. Technical teams of all the companies have installed and tested all these tools. Data from all the devices is reaching the computer system in the right way," an official of the department said.
(With PTI inputs)
