BMC starts testing low-cost hyperlocal air quality sensors for Mumbai

Mumbai: Co-location studies to calibrate low-cost air quality sensors with existing reference grade monitoring stations have commenced in the city as part of the MANAS (Mumbai Air Network for Advanced Sciences) project. Under the project, the BMC along with IIT-Kanpur will install 75 low-cost air quality monitoring sensors, for hyperlocal monitoring of air quality in the city. The BMC hopes to complete installation of all sensors before monsoon. The sensors will help the civic body in hyperlocal level decision making on air pollution.Civic sources said the devices are being tested and fine-tuned. "Since Mumbai is a coastal city, temperature and humidity will affect the functioning of the sensors. Therefore, the sensors have to be tested and fine-tuned accordingly. We are also installing about 10 of these sensors near our CAAQMS (continuous ambient air quality monitoring systems) stations," said a civic official. "The sensors will be installed at BMC buildings including ward offices, hospitals, schools and other civic structures across the city. We hope to get granular data from the same," the official added. Installation of the air quality monitoring units is expected to cost around Rs 13 crore. "The city will be divided into equal-sized grids of roughly eight square kilometres and the sensor-based air quality monitoring units would be set up at each of these grids. The monitoring units are expected to help BMC in measuring air quality at hyperlocal levels. The monitoring units are expected to measure PM 2.5 and PM 10 primarily," said an official.Data from the sensors will be linked to a cloud and a dashboard will help the civic body carry out hyperlocal action and mitigation measures. With data from these hyperlocal monitoring units along with that from AQI monitoring units installed at construction sites across the city, the BMC will be able to identify the sources of pollution in real-time. Besides, the BMC will also be able to carry out real-time mitigation action at the local level. Of the 2,700-odd construction sites in the city, about 2,500 have installed AQI monitoring units, of which data from about 2,100 are available on a dashboard for the BMC. The rest of the construction sites are in the process of installing the monitors. The IIT-Kanpur team has set up sensor-based monitoring units across Bihar and part of UP and in several cities.