Air quality: 10 works worth Rs 140 crore approved for Bengaluru

The city has received a fresh grant of Rs 140 crore from the 15th Finance Commission for this financial year for improving the air quality. This in addition to Rs 279 crore released by the Centre, last year.

The State Level Monitoring of Implementation Committee (SLMIC), which met last week, approved the action plan for ten works that will be implemented mainly by the BMTC and BBMP.

Of the total grant allotted for this year, the BMTC has received Rs 46 crore for works such as electrification of E-bus depots, procurement of double-decker buses etc. A major chunk of the grant has been given to the BBMP for projects such as procurement of mechanical sweepers, building better footpaths, clearing construction debris and so on.

Works	Cost
Electrification of e-bus depots for buses inducted under the faster adoption and manufacture scheme	Rs 20 crore
Procurement of five double decker electric vehicles	Rs 10 crore
Gross Cost Contract (GCC) of 100 feeder EV buses to BMRCL	Rs 15 crore
Procurement of mechanical street sweeping machine (2nd phase of procurement)	Rs 30 crore
Construction of paved footpaths for creating pedestrian facilities in major arterial and sub arterial roads -	Rs 30 crore
Creation of vertical garden on Metro pillars, BBMP flyover pillars, on TTMC and BMTC bus depot	Rs 5 crore
Creation of system for collection and transportation of construction and demolition waste from primary generation point to the processing plant	Rs 20 crore
Development of parks and air pollution reducing facilities below the existing flyover structures	Rs 5 crore
Development of mini forest in the concept of Miyawaki forest in the open spaces in BBMP	Rs 4 crore
Conducting information, education and communication activities for promotion of public transportation	Rs 1 crore

An official document accessed by the DH shows that Bengaluru is eligible to receive one more round of allocation of Rs 145 crore in the next financial year.

While the city is flushed with funds for mitigating air pollution, there has not been much progress in implementing the projects by authorities. A majority of the Rs 279 crore grant sanctioned in 2020-21 continues to remain unutilised due to absence of regular review meetings, controversy surrounding the selection of unnecessary works and poor response from service providers among others.

Some of the works proposed in the Rs 279-crore action plan include: control center to monitor air quality, procurement of noise meters, sensors to check emissions and mechanical sweepers, greening of urban spaces etc.

Experts say these grand announcements, without making any efforts to ensure compliance with existing norms to mitigate air pollution are of no use. “The city action plan on air quality was notified in 2019. Budgetary allocations for clean air in the city have made headlines time and again.

It is important to note that compliance of existing protocols, to achieve clean air, have not been met and in many cases pavements are a classic example. How is compliance being monitored? What mechanisms are in place to track and ensure progress?” wonders Aishwarya Sudhir, a researcher and lawyer.

Despite the continuous flow of grants, there is a limited access to real-time and forecast air quality information in Bengaluru.

This has been stifling the efforts to protect residents and little has been done to quantify the harmful exposures.