Engineering students monitor air, sound pollution levels across Aurangabad and in Waluj

AURANGABAD: As part of a research project,

students

of Waluj’s Hi-Tech Institute of Technology monitored the air and sound pollution levels at 25 spots across the city and 15 in Waluj on Friday.

They also took samples of water and soil from few of these locations to check for land and water pollution. The students also monitored sound pollution levels.

Environment expert

Geetanjali Kaushik

guided the team of students, who are pursuing their final year of Bachelor of

Engineering

(civil). The students were accompanied by faculty members R S Khaprade, Riyaz Siddiqui, D K Mishra, S M Karad and P S Lohade as they surveyed the spots.

The college had resolved to study pollution in February when a session on air pollution awareness was conducted by

Maharashtra Pollution Control Board

(MPCB) and Energy Policy Institute at University of Chicago (EPIC) under star rating programme of the MPCB.

Principal Siddharth Undirwade had said that the students will map out how the different industries are faring in terms of particulate emissions and find out which kind of industries are the most polluting.

To note down the readings of the sound levels, the team used a digital noise meter. “The levels of sound were found to be higher than the permissible limits at several locations. Although the levels for commercial areas should be between 67 to 77 decibels, Baba Petrol Pump showed a reading of 100db while Kranti Chowk was 95db,” Kaushik said.

A low-cost mobile sensor was used for reading air pollution levels, the readings from which will be calculated to find out the PM 2.5 levels at various locations. The water and soil samples have been collected for the government regional lab and forensic lab to test for presence of chemicals.