Delhi-NCR pollution monitoring gets new command centre ahead of winter smog

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has established an integrated command and control centre in Delhi to monitor pollution sources across the National Capital Region in real time ahead of the winter pollution season.

The facility, named Pavan — the Platform for Air Quality Vigilance and Analytics for NCR — has been set up on the 16th floor of the STC building at Janpath, where the commission operates.

Officials told Hindustan Times that the centre would be operationalised shortly.

Once operational, Pavan will receive live feeds from construction and landfill sites across the region. It will also collect information on stubble burning from multiple satellite and tracking systems, monitor data from 108 operational continuous ambient air-quality monitoring stations and receive live complaints submitted through government pollution-related applications.

The centre is also expected to receive information from brick kilns and track the implementation of action plans by states in the National Capital Region.

The system is intended to bring information from several pollution sources into one monitoring facility, allowing officials to identify emerging problems and assess whether prescribed action plans are being implemented.

Pollution across Delhi-NCR is influenced by multiple sources, including construction activity, road dust, industrial emissions, waste burning and agricultural residue burning. The use of an integrated monitoring system is intended to improve visibility of these sources across administrative boundaries.

However, the establishment of the centre does not by itself demonstrate that pollution levels will fall. Its effectiveness will depend on how quickly the information is analysed, how effectively authorities coordinate enforcement and whether corrective action follows the identification of violations.

The centre is being introduced as the region prepares for the seasonal deterioration in air quality that often accompanies cooler weather and reduced atmospheric dispersion.

CAQM’s next step is to operationalise the system and use the incoming data to support pollution-control measures across the region.