Government launches National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.10-January, 2019 17:21 IST

Government launches National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

Extensive consultation with all the relevant stakeholders foundation for formulation of NCAP: Dr. Harsh Vardhan

Air pollution is one of the biggest global environmental challenges of today. A time bound national level strategy for pan India implementation to tackle the increasing air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner in the form of National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was today launched by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan in New Delhi.
“Collaborative and participatory approach involving relevant Central Ministries, State Governments, local bodies and other Stakeholders with focus on all sources of pollution forms the crux of the Programme.” said the Union Environment Minister.Dr Harsh Vardhan further informed that taking into account the available international experiences and national studies, the tentative national level target of 20%–30% reduction of PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ concentration by 2024 is proposed under the NCAP taking 2017 as the base year for the comparison of concentration. “Overall objective of the 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.” the minister further added.

CEO NITI Aayog , Shri Amitabh Kant who was also present at the launch said that NCAP is a path breaking initiative and one of the most critical and most significant programme as it addresses one of the most alarming challenges of urbanization i.e. air pollution. “Today cities occupy just 3% of the land, but contribute to 82% of GDP and responsible for 78% of Carbon dioxide emissions; cities though are engines of growth and equity but they have to be sustainable and it is in this context that NCAP being a very inclusive program holds special relevance.” said Shri Kant.

The NCAP will be a mid-term, five-year action plan with 2019 as the first 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 a longer time horizon after a mid-term review of the outcomes. The approach for NCAP includes collaborative, multi-scale and cross-sectoral coordination between the relevant central ministries, state governments and local bodies. Dovetailing of the existing policies and programmes including the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and other initiatives of Government of India in reference to climate change will be done while execution of NCAP.

There will be use of the Smart Cities program to launch the NCAP in the 43 smart cities falling in the list of the 102 non-attainment cities. The NCAP is envisaged to be dynamic and will continue to evolve based on the additional scientific and technical information as they emerge. The NCAP will be institutionalized by respective ministries and will be organized through inter-sectoral groups, which include, Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, NITI Aayog, CPCB, experts from the industry, academia, and civil society. The program will partner with multilateral and bilateral international organizations, and philanthropic foundations and leading technical institutions to achieve its outcomes.
City specific action plans are being formulated for 102 non-attainment cities identified for implementing mitigation actions under NCAP. Cities have already prepared action plans in consultation with CPCB. Institutional Framework at Centre and State Level comprising of Apex Committee at the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change in the Centre and at Chief Secretary Level in the States are to be constituted.
In addition, sectoral working groups, national level Project Monitoring Unit, Project Implementation Unit, state level project monitoring unit, city level review committee under the Municipal Commissioner and DM level Committee in the Districts are to be constituted under NCAP for effective implementation and success of the Programme.

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, source apportionment studies, emphasis on enforcement, specific sectoral interventions etc.

The launch ceremony was attended by more than 150 participants representing central and state governments, industries, national & international organizations, Universities and research institutes from across the country.
The list of 102 cities chosen for this intervention is as follows:

Non-Attainment cities with respect to Ambient Air Quality India
(2011-2015) and WHO report 2014/2018

Sl. No	State	Cities Sl. No	Cities
1	Andhra Pradesh		Guntur
			Kurnool
			Nellore
			Vijaywada
			Vishakhapatnam
2	Assam		Guwahati
			Nagaon
			Nalbari
			Sibsagar
			Silchar
3	Chandigarh		Chandigarh
4	Chattisgarh		Bhillai
			Korba
			Raipur
5	Delhi		Delhi
6	Gujarat		Surat
			Ahmedabad
7	Himachal Pradesh		Baddi
			Damtal
			Kala Amb
			Nalagarh
			Paonta Sahib
			Parwanoo
			Sunder Nagar
8	Jammu & Kashmir		Jammu
			Srinagar
9	Jharkhand		Dhanbad
10	Karnataka		Bangalore
			Devanagere
			Gulburga
			Hubli-Dharwad
11	Madhya Pradesh		Bhopal
			Dewas
			Indore
			Sagar
			Ujjain
			Gwalior
12	Maharashtra		Akola
			Amravati
			Aurangabad
			Badlapur
			Chandrapur
			Jalgaon
			Jalna
			Kolhapur
			Latur
			Mumbai
			Nagpur
			Nashik
			Navi Mumbai
			Pune
			Sangli
			Solapur
			Ulhasnagar
13	Meghalaya		Byrnihat
14	Nagaland		Dimapur
			Kohima
15	Orissa		Angul
			Balasore
			Bhubneshwar
			Cuttack
			Rourkela
			Talcher
16	Punjab		DeraBassi
			Gobindgarh
			Jalandhar
			Khanna
			Ludhiana
			NayaNangal
			Pathankot/Dera Baba
			Patiala
			Amritsar
17	Rajasthan		Alwar
			Jaipur
			Jodhpur
			Kota
			Udaipur
18	Tamilnadu		Tuticorin
19	Telangana		Hydrabad
			Nalgonda
			Patencheru
20	Uttar Pradesh		Agra
			Allahabad
			Anpara
			Bareily
			Firozabad
			Gajraula
			Ghaziabad
			Jhansi
			Kanpur
			Khurja
			Lucknow
			Muradabad
			Noida
			Raebareli
			Varanasi
21	Uttarakhand		Kashipur
			Rishikesh
22	West Bengal		Kolkata
23	Bihar		Patna
			Gaya
			Muzaffarpur

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GK

(Release ID :187400)