National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in January 2019 with the objective of improving air quality in 131 non-attainment and Million Plus Cities/Urban Agglomerations across 24 States/UTs, by engaging all relevant stakeholders. NCAP aims for a reduction of 20-30% in PM10 concentrations by 2024-25 compared to the baseline year of 2017-18. The target has been revised to achieve up to a 40% reduction in PM10 levels or to meet national standards (60 µg/m³) by 2025-26. City specific targets ranging from 4-15% have been given for reduction in annual PM10 concentrations by implementing city specific action plans. In addition, annual target of 15% improvement in Good Days (Air Quality Index <200) has been prescribed for 49 Million Plus cities/Urban Agglomerations.

Four cities of Gujarat, namely Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, and Vadodara are covered under the Programme and funded under XVth Finance Commission Million Plus Cities Challenge Fund. An amount of Rs. 1085.42 crore has been provided till 2023-24 to the cities in Gujarat under the programme. Details of funds provided to the cities in Gujarat are provided at Annexure- I. All four cities of Gujarat have shown reduction in PM10 levels ranging from 21-40 % in 2023-24 as compared to base year 2017-18. Details of air quality improvement in the cities of Gujarat is provided at Annexure-II.

Annexure- I

Details of funds provided to cities in Gujarat under National Clean Air Programme till FY 2023-24

State	S. No.	Cities	Amount released in Rs. crore
Gujarat	1	Ahmedabad*	571.29
	2	Rajkot	120.69
	3	Surat*	261.18
	4	Vadodara	132.26
Total			1085.42

* Funds provided to cities include funding from MoEFCC as well as XVth Finance Commission air quality grants, under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

Annexure- II

 

Air quality Improvement of Cities in Gujarat under NCAP

 

States	S. No.	Cities	2017-18	2023-24	Improvement in PM10 concentrations with respect to base year 2017-18 (%)
			(Base Year) Average PM10 concentration (µg/m3)	Average PM10 concentration (µg/m3)
Gujarat	1	Ahmedabad	164	98	40
	2	Rajkot	150	92	39
	3	Surat	130	103	21
	4	Vadodara	133	95	29

 

This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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