By IANS,
New Delhi : The level of sulphur dioxide (SO2), a major pollutant, has decreased in the national capital, data released by the environment ministry revealed Friday.
While the sulphur dioxide levels are within the norms, the nitrogen oxide (NO) and particulate matter 10 (PM10) levels exceed the prescribed norms.
“Decreasing trend of sulphur dioxide may be due to various interventions that have taken place in recent years such as reduction of sulphur in diesel and the use of cleaner fuel such as CNG,” a ministry official said.
The ministry said various measures such as implementation of Bharat Stage-II/III/IV norms have been taken to mitigate ambient nitrogen oxide and particulate matter 10 levels, but at the same time the number of vehicles has increased.
The data is a part of the Source Apportionment Study initiated by the ministry.
Delhi has 17 ambient air quality monitoring stations while the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) operates three manual monitoring stations under the National Ambient Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP).