Announced in 2021-22 budget, TN to shelve air quality forecast studio project

CHENNAI: The State government has shelved its plan to set up an Integrated Environment Monitoring Studio to monitor air and water quality, apart from biomedical waste, and forecast trends. Envisaged in 2021, the proposal has been gathering dust for three years.

A source privy to the development confided that department secretary P Senthilkumar has sent a missive to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to drop the project. "The plan was to set up the studio at Anna University in partnership with a Switzerland-based organisation. It was decided that Anna University shall provide expertise and the Swiss organisation the requisite technology while TNPCB shall manage the studio," the source added.

Then finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan announced during his 2021-2022 budget speech: "India's first Integrated Environment Monitoring Studio will be established for forecasts of air quality on a real-time basis with an early warning system."

Following the announcement, the Environment, Climate Change and Forest Department issued a government order in November 2021, according administrative sanction for Rs 64 crore to set up the studio as well as continuous air quality monitoring stations in 17 districts. Apart from forecasting the future air quality, the studio would have provided early warnings on a real-time basis.

An environmental scientist, working closely with the department, opined that the studio would have become a failure as the air quality data of the past are not accurate. "As per the concept, the studio would forecast future air quality trends based on past air quality data and present data. If the past data are inaccurate, the studio may not be able to give accurate forecasts," he explained.

According to the GO, the studio would have helped regulatory bodies to take preventive and corrective measures in terms of air quality. The data would have also been released in the public domain to alert people about the air pollution standards.

Presently, TNPCB has 52 air quality monitoring stations in 38 districts and the stations collect data about eight pollutants. However, pollutants such as carbon monoxide, particulate matter, nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxides are being monitored manually at the 52 stations.