Pollution control board to implement Bhure Lal report

It's an attempt to reduce increasing air pollution in City

The case trajectory of Covid-19 has registered a substantial decline from the peak in May, but the increase in the R-factor was an indication that the pandemic was still not over.

In an attempt to reduce the increasing air pollution in the City, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has decided to implement the Bhure Lal Committee report.

The report on air pollution was approved by the Supreme Court in 2000.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, KSPCB chairman Vaman Acharya said the City is becoming like Beijing when it comes to pollution. The two cities have high vehicular air pollution levels.

To control it, the department is planning to implement the recommendations of the Bhure Lal committee report, which has not been done in totality till date in many Indian cities, including Bengaluru.

Bhure Lal was the Chairman of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) and a member of the Monitoring Committee on Sealing set up by the Supreme Court. In 1999-2000 he prepared a report on environmental pollution and the ways to curb it. The report was tabled in the court pertaining to pollution levels in Delhi. The court stated that it could be implemented in all Indian cities.

Better transportation

Acharya said that though Beijing has better public transportation, it still has many private vehicles. In case of Bengaluru, the public transportation is bad and there are too many private vehicles. According to the Bhure Lal report it is important to reduce sulphur and nitrous oxide levels in the atmosphere. Some of the report’s recommendations are: to use lead-free fuel, to use more CNG in public transportation, to ensure all old vehicles and two stroke-engines are scrapped from the City, to encourage more public transportation, discourage private vehicles in central business districts, ban trucks from City roads, to implement strict parking norms and to ensure there are signal-free roads.

It has been noticed that air pollution is lesser on the ring roads than on City roads. This is because vehicles move at a constant pace on the well maintained ring roads without signals and speed breakers. This needs to be implemented across Bengaluru, he said.

T V Ramachandra, Energy and Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, said that this was a good step forward, but will not be effective without government support. It is mandatory that the government and all the departments work together, which was another recommendation in the report. Another recommendation of the report is to reduce the dependence on coal and stricter industrial policies.