Government launches National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

On January 10, 2019, MoEFCC launched a time-bound National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) for pan-India implementation to tackle the increasing air pollution problem across the country.

The goal of the NCAP is to meet the prescribed annual average ambient air quality standards at all locations in the country in a stipulated timeframe (long-term). Taking into account the available international experiences and national studies, the tentative national level target of 20%–30% reduction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024 is proposed under the NCAP. This is keeping 2017 as the base year for the comparison of concentration.

The overall objective of NCAP is comprehensive mitigation actions for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution besides augmenting the air quality monitoring network across the country and strengthening the awareness and capacity building activities.

This will be a mid-term, five-year action plan to begin with keeping 2019 as the base year. However, the international experiences and national studies indicate that significant outcome in terms of air pollution initiatives are visible only in the long-term, and hence the programme may be further extended to 20–25 years in the long-term after a mid-term review of the outcomes.

The NCAP approach will include:

·      Collaborative, multi-scale and cross-sectoral coordination between the relevant central ministries, state governments and local bodies.

·      Mainstreaming and integrating the existing policies and programmes of the including the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and other initiatives of Government of India in reference to climate changes.

·      City specific action plans for 102 non-attainment cities identified for implementing mitigation actions under NCAP.

·      Use of the Smart Cities framework to launch the NCAP in the 43 smart cities falling in the list of 102 non-attainment cities.

(Note: The non-attainment cities are those cities in which the prescribed norms under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) are violated.)

Other features of NCAP include:

·      increasing number of monitoring stations in the country including rural monitoring stations,

·      technology support,

·      emphasis on awareness and capacity building initiatives,

·      setting up of certification agencies for monitoring equipment,

·      emphasis on enforcement,

·      specific sectoral interventions, etc.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) shall execute the nation-wide programme.