Two Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) set up in Cuddalore to record particulate matter, gaseous pollutants and analyse air quality in the region have been remaining dysfunctional for over a year. The real-time display monitors were set up in 2013 as per Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines.
While one display monitor was installed at the office of the District Environmental Engineer of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board in Cuddalore SIPCOT, the second one was set up in Semmandalam, a residential zone in Cuddalore to monitor and manage air pollution, including particulate matter such as PM 2.5, PM 10 and gaseous pollutants such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and take up mitigation measures.
“The two monitors installed at a cost of more than ₹1 crore each don’t show any data and have not been working for the past one year. Their continued non-functioning in a critically polluted industrial cluster such as Cuddalore has defeated the very purpose for which they were set up several years ago,” says an environmentalist.
