APPCB to prepare action plan to reduce air pollution in 5 years

Amaravati: The State government will provide Rs 639 crore as gap funding for implementing action plan to reduce air pollution in the State during the next 5 years till 2025-26.

Out of this, a sum of Rs 274 crore is earmarked for Visakhapatnam and Rs 232 crore for Vijayawada. Massive environment awareness campaign will be undertaken involving the youth, communities, all sections of the people and also with the active participation of all the civil society organisations.

Addressing the industries' delegates during the virtual summit on 'Environment, Health and Safety (EHS)' on Friday, A K Parida, chairman of AP Pollution Control Board (APPCB), said Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed the APPCB to prepare an action plan to reduce air pollution in the 13 municipal towns in the State. The PM10 level has to be brought down from the annual average of 70 – 80 microgram per cubic meter to less than annual average of 60 microgram per cubic meter during the next 5 years. These 13 towns are the district headquarters towns and are a part of 132 non-attainment cities in the country. He said Andhra University will assist the municipal towns of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Rajamahendravaram, Kakinada and Eluru and IIT-Tirupati will assist the municipalities of Vijayawada, Guntur, Ongole, Nellore and Tirupati and National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Tirupathi will assist the municipal towns of Chittoor, Anantapuramu, Kadapa Kurnool in undertaking source apportionment studies, identifying the hotspots and carrying capacity studies.

He said the APPCB has appealed to all the industry delegates to contribute out of their CSR funds for the Clean Air Andhra Pradesh (CAAP) programme and be a part of the Eco-System Restoration process in providing clean air to the people in the municipal towns which are close to their industries.

City level action plans have been prepared involving municipalities/ municipal corporations, Transport, Industry and Agriculture departments and to implement all the micro level interventions with close monitoring by the implementation Committees headed by the respective District Collectors. Funds available under different government schemes in the urban sectors will be dovetailed with the municipalities / municipal corporations' resources. CSR funds available with the local industries will be converged to implement the City Action Plans under CAAP.