Delhi government had asked IIT-Kanpur to come out with a report on air pollution — to find the causes and the possible solutions. The institute has come up with solutions and it doesn’t include the odd-even formula. IIT-Kanpur has submitted the report to the Kejriwal government that clearly states the need to switch to cleaner vehicles like electric and hybrid to reduce the pollution levels.
The report suggests to move at least 10 per cent of three-wheelers, and two per cent of both two-wheelers and four-wheelers should be moved to run on either electric or hybrid technology. With regards to vehicles, it has recommended to retro-fit diesel particulate filter and usage of low-sulphur fuel containing less than 10ppm. It even suggests improved inspection and maintenance of vehicles as well as installation of vapour-recovery systems at petrol pumps to reduce evaporation losses.
As for non-vehicular pollutants, the IIT report has recommended vacuum sweeping all the major city-roads four times a month. Plus, the use of coal and burning of other municipal solid wastes in NCR and that of crop residue in Punjab and Haryana should come to a stop. Finally, efficient concrete batching and better construction waste handling in order to keep the dust down has also been recommended.
The top four contributors towards particular matter measuring 2.5 to 10 micrometre in size are road dust (56 per cent), concrete batching (10 per cent), industrial point sources (10 per cent again) and automobiles (9 per cent), says the report. These results are based on annual emissions and have seasonal variations. Road and soil dust is lower during winters.
The top four contributors to particulate matter up to 2.5 micrometre in size, meanwhile are road dust (38 per cent) followed by automobiles (20 per cent), domestic fuel (12 per cent) and industrial point sources (11 per cent). These too vary with different seasons.
