CONCLUSIONS

In India, various air quality improvement actions have been implemented, particularly in Delhi and Mumbai, where series of Supreme Court and High Court orders have been passed, viz., introduction of CNG for commercial vehicles in Delhi, ban on sale of loose lubricants for 2-stroke vehicles, sulphur and benzene reduction, mandating of higher version of Bharat (equivalent EURO) emission standards, ban on commercial vehicles (more than 8 years) to ply in Mumbai, PUC up-gradation etc. Though, these actions have led to immediate improvement in the air quality in these two cities, the current rate of increase of vehicles on road is going to negate the benefits generated through various measures due to high congestion resulting in low vehicle kilometer traveled per unit time as well as fuel. Vehicular pollution control may look as an attractive option for the control, however, some recent studies on source apportionment have indicated that the air pollution contribution is not limited to vehicular sector alone (R. Kumar et al., 2003 and NEERI, 2004). The lack of understanding of sources, their contribution at the receptor levels and transport mechanisms are the major issues in developing the strategies for effective solution for better air quality goals.

Urban air shed is not limited to the political boundary of the city like Delhi or Mumbai but most of the management solutions are devised to address these limited political boundaries. Growth of smaller cities outside Delhi periphery as also large scale growth of distant suburbs in Mumbai would drive the air quality goals in future. Serious concerns in both these cities are with regard to larges scale migration within the city as also exponential growth of urban centers just beyond the boundary of the mega-city. USEPA and NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) have been working with various stakeholders in different cities to initiate the use of science based urban air quality management tools to address various issues emerging in Indian cites.

First and foremost challenge for air pollution abatement in India relates to improving the current state of knowledge on sources, emission factors for these sources, preparation of dynamic inventories for constant up-gradation (Biniwale et al., 2005) and source apportionment for strategic development of action plans. Fuel mix and fuel adulteration (Badami, 2005) are the major drivers of air pollution scenario in cities and therefore effective tools to manage them are warranted. There is a need to develop city specific solutions based on the local sources, emission characteristics, meteorological conditions, institutional support and infrastructure. Also long range transport of pollutants, particularly particulate matter, need to be better understood in tropical regions, where large scale background concentration may be contributed by outside sources.

R&D challenges in this area need targeted assessment to provide results for taking ground level actions for better local and regional air quality. All the efforts need to be linked to health improvement with proper assessment of benefits to the masses using economic principles for communicating the successes and failures.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors would like to acknowledge many colleagues from various institutions such as CPCB, MoEF, MPCB, NEERI, USEPA who have been instrumental in debating and articulating many of the policy measures being applied in Indian cities.

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