Parliamentary proceedings: Only one in five cities have achieved NCAP targets

The Hindu

a day ago

Only about one in five of India's most polluted cities funded under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) have reduced their particulate matter levels to targeted levels, according to data shared by the Minister of State for Environment, Kirti Vardhan Singh, in the Lok Sabha on Monday (July 212, 2025).
The NCAP, which was launched in 2019, originally aimed for a 20%-30% reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 levels by 2024, on the 2017 baseline levels. However, in 2022, the target was revised to achieve up to a 40% reduction in PM10 levels, with no targets for PM 2.5, or to meet national standards (60 µg/m³) by 2025-26.
Out of 130 cities, 48 million-plus cities/urban agglomerations (population greater than a million) are funded under the 15th Finance Commission Million Plus City Challenge Fund as an air quality performance grant, and the remaining 82 cities are funded under Control of Pollution Scheme of Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Performance-linked grant of ₹13,036.52 crore was provided to 130 cities for critical gap funding.
With the deadline for achieving targets set for March 2026, data shared by the Environment Ministry shows that with reference to the 2017-18 baseline, only 25 of the 130 cities have achieved a minimum 40% reduction in PM10 as of 2024-25. On the other hand, there are also 25 cities that have reported an increase in PM10 levels when compared with 2017-18.
The four cities with the sharpest improvement (reduction) in particulate matter levels are Bareilly (76%), Varanasi (74.3%), and Firozabad (59.5%) in Uttar Pradesh, and Dehradun (57.2%) in Uttarakhand.
'There has been notable improvement in PM10 levels in major Indian cities,' Mr. Vardhan said in his response in the Lok Sabha. 'Mumbai has shown improvement in PM10 levels with a 44% reduction in 2024-25 compared to FY2017-18, followed by Kolkata (37%), Delhi (15%), and Chennai (12%). PM10 data in respect of 2017-18 and 2024-25 and per cent improvement in PM10 concentrations of Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai in FY 2024-25 w.r.t. FY 2017-18. These improvements reflect the positive impact of various air quality improvement measures implemented under NCAP,' the Minister said.
In all, 103 cities had shown a reduction in PM10 concentration in 2024-25 with respect to 2017-18, and 22 had achieved the 40% target as well as kept annual concentrations below 60 µg/m³, the statement said.