To reduce air pollution in Kolkata, trading activities and warehouses to be shifted outside
After shifting the bus terminus for long-distance buses to Santragachi, on the outskirts of Kolkata, in order to reduce pollution levels in the city, to further that aim, the Bengal government is now planning to prevent the entry of heavy vehicles within the city limits.
Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim met transport operators and trade union leaders on Tuesday and told them that or Kolkata’s air quality to improve, trucks laden with heavy goods—around 650 of which enter every day—cannot be allowed to enter the city. The transporters and wholesale traders can have their offices in the city but the trading (loading and unloading of trucks) and the locations of warehouses have to be outside city limits, at certain designated zones.
According to a study conducted by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) for the West Bengal Pollution Control Board in 2019, the transport sector was responsible for a fifth of the the PM2.5 level in the city. And of that 20 per cent, more than half was contributed by goods vehicles.
This is one for the main studies based on which the government is now acting to remove trading and warehousing activities outside city limits.
PM2.5 signifies particulates 2.5 microns or less in diameter which, being so tiny, can enter the deepest crevices of the lungs, and for that matter, any organ, to cause lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and other dangerous diseases.
The NEERI study also found out that besides PM2.5, goods vehicles emit oxides of nitrogen, which can combine with other gases in the air to form ozone. Nitrogen dioxide causes asthma among those genetically predisposed to the disease while ozone breaks down the defence mechanism of the lungs, helping the entry of unwanted matter.
