Pune: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is collaborating with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for ‘Clean Air Project in India.’ The project is part of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
NCAP was launched on January 10 by the Government of India. Under NCAP, Nashik and Pune have been identified as two of the 102 non-attainment cities for which there is a need to develop a clean air action plan.
The SDC recently had a meeting with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB). The Regional Officer of MPCB, Dilip Khedekar, said, “We will provide the existing air quality data to SDC. Officials of SDC will also check air quality of the city. After all data is collected, MPCB, MoEFCC along with SDC will decide further course of action on improving the air quality of the city.
“As part of the collaboration with SDC, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has been awarded the contract to develop the project document for the upcoming phase one of the project. The overall aim of the project is to support India’s efforts to improve air quality, while contributing to public health, environment and climate change mitigation,” Khedekar added.
Duration of the project
- The inception phase will be of six months: to define the detailed intervention strategy based on the scoping study.
- First phase will be of four years, i.e till 2023: to contribute to India’s new national Clean Air Programme.
- Second phase will be of four and a half years from 2023 to 2027. The actions will be decided later by the MPCB, (MoEFCC).
