Comprehensive Clean Air Action Plan for Gaya

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India, launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which proposes strategies to reduce air pollution. The NCAP identifies 122 non-attainment Indian cities [cities that violate the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)]. Gaya—one of the five most polluted cities in the world, in terms of particulate matter (PM) (WHO, 2018) — has also been identified as one of the non-attainment cities under NCAP. In this context, a clean air action plan was prepared under which an emission inventory was developed for Gaya. Gaya Clean Air Action Plan identified source-specific Control Measures (CMs) and performed a Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) on the CMs. This helped to identify technically and economically feasible solutions/technologies to reduce pollution levels in Gaya. Moreover, several focused group discussions with various stakeholders were also conducted to understand the pollution landscape in the city and workshops were conducted as a part of the study, to discuss and validate the findings.