Prioritisation of actions in the existing clean air action plan for Pune and Nashik

In the last decade, improvement in the economic standard of people and migration from rural areas to urban areas has led to degradation of air quality in the cities. Air pollution has emerged as one of the biggest global challenges posing serious threats to human health, economy and the overall ecological balance. In 2017, air pollution was responsible for 8% of the total disease burden and 11% of premature deaths in people younger than 70 years in India. To tackle the problem of air pollution at both national and urban scales, MoEF&CC, GoI, has launched a flagship program named national clean air program (NCAP), which stresses upon national and city-level efforts for air quality management, capacity building, and increased know-how about technologies as key elements for overcoming and tackling air pollution across the country.
Under NCAP, the respective SPCBs have formulated clean air action plans (CAAPs). These plans list various strategies which can reduce sectorial emissions and can contribute towards air quality improvements. In the CAP India project, one of the tasks is to evaluate these plans and prioritise some of the actions based on existing knowledge and stakeholder consultations. The prioritised action list will not only help the MPCB in focusing their energies on more optimal actions but will also help the partners of CAP India project to identify some of the no regret measures for possible pilot demonstrations. The clean air action plans (CAAPs) has been evaluated for Pune and Nashik. These action plans have been designed targeting various sources of air pollution which includes vehicular, industrial, biomass burning, DG sets emissions etc. and keeping in view favorable air quality improvements, technical and economical feasibility and time required for implementation. Further, the interventions listed in clean air action plan has been classified as short term, medium term and long term on the basis its period of implementation. The interventions listed in action plan have to be implemented by different concerned Departments/ Agencies.

This report presents the methodology adopted in order to prioritize the actions listed in clean air action plans and optimal actions identified for Pune and Nashik cities air quality improvement.