Meghalaya has ramped up air-quality surveillance in the industrial town of Byrnihat – flagged in recent assessments as one of the country’s most polluted towns – with Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma inaugurating a Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS) in Ri-Bhoi district, officials said. Located along the Assam-Meghalaya border, Byrnihat has featured among India’s worst pollution hotspots in studies by IQAir and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, they said. The newly installed CAAQMS will provide real-time data on major air-quality indicators, helping authorities take timely corrective action and frame evidence-based policies, the officials said.
At the MSPCB office in Shillong, the Chief Minister unveiled a Zero Liquid Discharge Effluent Treatment Plant and a 47 kW grid-connected rooftop solar system under the CM’s Solar Mission. He also toured the Board’s laboratories for air and water quality analysis. Sangma expressed confidence that the MSPCB would evolve into “an even more vibrant and effective institution” capable of driving improvements in air and water quality across Meghalaya.