Air quality forecast system in Delhi
By IANSFriday, October 22, 2010
NEW DELHI - Now you can come to know about air quality in the national capital for the next two days with an air quality forecasting system available here.
With technical support from the French government, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has developed a programme - Clean Air for Delhi 2010 and Beyond, which was launched during the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games.
According to CPCB chairman S.P. Gautam, the system for forecasting air quality is installed in 37 locations in the city and the data will be available on the pollution control board’s website, www.cpcb.nic.in, and on the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) website, www.imd.gov.in.
“Through Indo-French cooperation, the CPCB is now capable of providing the Delhi citizens not only weather but also an air quality forecast for the next 48 hours,” an official said.
French Ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont said “we have to try to extend it” to other Indian cities. The French government will “support” India in its endeavour in this regard, he added.
French firms, Aria Technologies and Leosphera, have provided technical support to the venture.
The two companies developed a similar system in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games and is also developing the same in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) as part of its preparations for the 2016 Olympics.
Aria Technologies’s Giuseppe Calori told IANS that the company was in talks with the pollution control boards in West Bengal and Maharashtra to set up similar systems in their capital cities.
