Pollution Status in Chennai After Implementing New Air Standards

Keywords:

Pollution, Transport, Economy, Air quality index, Bharat stage norms, Government, Development.

1. INTRODUCTION:

In the current world scenario transport holds an important role in the economic growth and

development of a country. In the ancient times man had only three basic needs and they are food,

cloth and shelter respectively. But in the present world transport has become one of the basic needs

for every human. Initially we used carts for travel which evolved to a great extent and now we can

even travel to space if we want to. India has four metropolitan cities and Chennai is one among

them. The total number of vehicles that Chennai had in 1992 was just 600,000. It took a rapid

growth and went to “1.3 million in 2001 and 3.64 million in 2012” [9]. This was because of the

economic growth and commercialisation. The current count of vehicles that hit the road daily in

Chennai is approximately 1500, where two wheelers constitute 75 percent of it. The registration

of four wheelers is also on the rise. Chennai vehicles constitute one-fourth of the 17.5 million

vehicles across the state of Tamil Nadu. Other than these Chennai has two harbours which brings

in lots of trucks from other states for the transport of goods internationally.

“There is only one emission testing centre for every 103,000 vehicles as per the data

available with State Transport Authority of Tamil Nadu and it is difficult to impose regulations in

the emission systems of vehicles within the city as a result of this” [7]. A study by IIT-Madras

shows that 14% of particulate matter and 68% of nitrous oxides come from vehicles whereas other

studies show that 35% of particulate matter of size 2.5 microns which is the most dangerous

pollutant comes from vehicles. A study carried out by scientists of University of Berkeley

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published in Environmental Science and Technology in 2012 shows that the exposure to vehicular

fumes (in terms of population-weighted intake...