Characterizing Patna's Ambient Air Quality & Assessing Opportunities for Policy Intervention

Abstract

The PM pollution in the greater Patna region is often above the national standards and the WHO guidelines; which is estimated to result in 2,600 premature deaths, 200,000 asthma attacks, and 1,100 cardiac admissions in 2012 and could reach 4,900 premature deaths, 507,000 asthma attacks, and 2,850 cardiac admissions in 2030, if no control measures are introduced and enforced. We benchmarked the emission sources and following emission reduction strategies were considered (1) Emission control options for the brick kiln manufacturing – technology changes, landuse changes (relocation) and operational changes (raw material) (2) Introduction of cleaner fuel for the in-use vehicle fleet, which currently has access to only Bharat-3 type fuel (3) Improvements in the public- and para- transit systems and introduction of alternative fuel (CNG) for these modes (4) Targeting the diesel generator sets, with thermal power plant in Barh coming online to support the electricity demand in the city (5) Controlling dust resuspension on the roads and (6) Combination all the above five scenarios. Overall, the brick kilns and the road transport are the major contributors to the air pollutionproblems and the interventions discussed here can lead up to 35% reduction in the PM pollution and likely more reduction in the health impacts.

Keywords: Air Quality Management, Scenario Analysis, Patna, India, Emissions Inventory, PM2.5, Emissions Management