Author(s)

U. S. Kulkarni & H. A. Keshwani

Abstract

A complete assessment of the impacts caused due to widening of a National Highway on the air, water and soil environment in the nearest vicinity and 10 kms study area has been carried out and results presented. The Pune–Solapur National Highway-9 from km 144.00 to km 249.00 chainage has to be widened from existing 2 lane carriageway to 4/6 lane carriageway. The said project has been accorded Environmental Clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Govt. of India, in the month of September 2011. The baseline study of the site comprising ambient air, noise, surface/ ground water, soil, landuse, ecological biodiversity and socio-economic factors of the area in 10 kms from the proposed widening site was carried out. Since the proposed project is a highway project, major air pollutants from the widening shall be vehicular exhaust emission from the increased traffic. This being a line source can be predicted through CALINE software. Study of ambient level of existing carbon monoxide (CO) concentration has been carried out in the EIA report. Predicted increased levels of air pollutant CO for worst-case scenario was projected based on the existing baseline data. The input parameters required for the CALINE software such as, traffic volume, meteorological parameters (wind speed, wind direction, stability class, mixing height), emission parameters, road geometry, terrain type, background pollutant concentration and receptor location are incorporated after carrying out site-specific study. The maximum concentration of Carbon Monoxide (CO) was found to be in the southwest direction of the proposed development. This ground level concentration of CO is very meagre and even after summing up with the existing ambient air level shall cause very negligible impact on the existing ambient air of the study area as assessed from the software results. Moreover, it is planned that vehicles plying in the area shall

Keywords

NHAI, vehicular emission, CALINE 4 software, AAQM, traffic density, receptors, line source model, impact assessment, results, discussion