The display panel of “Continuous automatic ambient air quality station” installed at the planetarium in Patna. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 4: Health freaks in the city will now find it easy to check the quality of air they breathe and take necessary precautions. Bihar Pollution Control Board (BPCB) is set to install a round-the-clock air quality monitoring system.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi would inaugurate the continuous automatic ambient air quality station on July 8. It would be set up on the premises of Birla Planetarium near the Income Tax roundabout.

“The system would keep tabs on the air quality of a particular area and provide information about the presence of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, respiratory suspended particulate matter and carbon dioxide in the area,” Manoj Kumar Singh, the member-secretary of BPCB told The Telegraph.

The information will be displayed on a 6ftx4ft LCD screen.

Sources said the system is expected to cost around Rs 1 crore. Both the state and central governments will contribute to the cost. Around Rs 25 lakh would also be spent on the maintenance of the system.

The system was expected to start functioning by March-end this year.

“Work on the project, initiated by the board two years ago, is complete now. We are in the final stages of conducting the preliminary tests. Components of the system have already been imported from Australia, the Netherlands and the UK,” said S.N. Jaiswal, a senior scientist of the board. He added that as most of the components are not made in India, the board had to import them.

At present, BPCB collects samples manually from Gandhi Maidan and Beltron Bhavan, the pollution control board office. Common people are unable to access the information provided by the manual system. Even if the information is available, it is a day or two old.

However, under the new system, the data will be collected, analysed and displayed immediately.

Discussing the present situation of air-pollutants in the city, Naveen Kumar, another senior scientist of BPCB, said: “It is only the quantity of suspended particulate matter (SPM) in Patna that is recorded higher than the national air quality standards. The rest are within the permissible limits. Even the SPM could be reduced considerably.

“It is good that citizen would be able to know the quantum of pollutants in the air they breathe.”

Health experts are of the view that wherever the air pollution-level is high, respiratory disorders such as asthma, cough, allergy and lung congestion are common.

The board also plans to set up a round-the-clock air quality monitoring system in Muzaffarpur and Gaya.