Mumbai: The BMC has invited tenders for the third-party verification and audit of sensor-based Air Quality Index (AQI) monitors installed at construction sites across the city.Earlier, the Bombay high court had directed that sensor-based air quality monitoring devices be installed at all construction sites and be connected to a centralised monitoring system. However, complaints regarding discrepancies in the readings and the lack of accurate representation of the ground situation subsequently surfaced.According to the BMC, it is necessary to ensure that the nearly 3,000 sensors installed at construction sites across Mumbai comply with the prescribed technical specifications, calibration standards, accuracy levels, and performance criteria, besides being integrated with the centralised dashboard. The third-party audit will assess the performance of the sensor-based air quality monitors to verify their conformity with approved technical specifications, calibration and data accuracy, real-time data transmission, and integration with the central monitoring system, among other parameters. The selected contractor will deploy mobile audit vans equipped with reference-grade instruments to carry out triangulated validation of the air quality data generated by the sensors installed at construction sites.Meanwhile, under the MANAS (Mumbai Air Network for Advanced Sciences) project, the BMC and IIT-Kanpur have completed the installation of 75 low-cost air quality sensors atop civic buildings, including ward offices, hospitals, and schools, across the city to generate granular air quality data. The dashboard for the network is expected to be operational soon, enabling hyperlocal pollution monitoring.Under the project, Mumbai has been divided into equal-sized grids of roughly 8 sq km, with sensor-based air quality monitoring units installed in each grid.
