In Chennai, Alandur is an important residential locality. This is making news now for this important reason.
Alandur is worst affected locality now in Chennai with respect to nitrogen dioxide concentration.
It must be noted that the prescribed limit for nitrogen dioxide concentration in air in Chennai has exceeded the limits prescribed by the World Health Organisation or WHO.
In Alandur, nitrogen dioxide is present in the air 86percent of the year. In 2023, Greenpeace India took a survey and as per the survey Chennai city`s annual nitrogen dioxide is twice the guideline prescribed by WHO.
Point is that at all the continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations or CAAQM in Chennai the nitrogen dioxide concentration has exceeded the limit prescribed byvWHO in all the places except Perungudi. In Alandur, the average concentration of nitrogen dioxide recorded was 57 micrograms per cubicmetre.
It is learnt that the highest average was recorded in Alandur bus depot near busy roads and airport etc. In Ennore and in Royapuram in north Chennai, the stations are present within 10m of the major roads. In these 2 places too, the concentration of nitrogen dioxide has surpassed the limit prescribed by WHO.