After months-long blackout, 29 air quality monitors in Haryana set to go live in a week

Gurgaon: Haryana will bring 29 air quality monitoring stations back online by next week, ending a months-long data blackout that left cities across the state without pollution readings, some of which overlapped with the critical crop-burning and winter smog season.The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) this week awarded the maintenance contracts for the monitoring stations to two firms, which will restore the network ahead of Oct-Nov, when stubble burning and cold weather typically push air quality to "very poor" and "severe" levels.Real-time data can be critical for issuing alerts, enforcement actions and public health advisories."We are able to restore monitoring across Haryana in time for winter. By the end of next week, data will be visible in the bulletin," a senior HSPCB official said on Friday.Of Haryana's 31 monitoring stations, 29 run by HSPCB went offline between late 2024 and April 2025. These included three of the four monitoring stations in Gurgaon, and all such monitors in Faridabad, Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak and Yamunanagar.Only two stations operated by the India Meteorological Department — in Gurgaon (Gwal Pahari) and Panchkula — continued generating real-time readings.The network collapse began when HSPCB allowed its five-year service contract to lapse without arranging for a renewal or substitute.The first monitor in Faridabad's Sector 16A shut down in Nov 2024, followed by stations across Sirsa, Palwal, Fatehabad, Sonipat, Ambala and Ballabgarh. By Jan 2025, 20 of 31 stations were offline. The remaining stations, mostly in eastern districts, shut down between Feb and April.A tender for the contracts was floated in May — seven months after stations began failing — and it attracted only one bidder, forcing the agency to scrap it under procurement rules that mandate at least two bids. The tender was floated a second time in Aug, and awarded this month.Under the new contracts, ENVEA India will maintain most monitors whilst ACOEM will handle one station in Faridabad. The agreements cover repair, calibration and maintenance, with data flowing to both the Central Pollution Control Board's portal and state dashboards.The state had established 19 monitors in 2018-19 and another 20 in 2020, all previously maintained by ENVEA.The data gap, experts said, would prove costly for public health tracking.An analysis by Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) showed Gurgaon had already breached the WHO's annual PM2.5 limit by 19 Jan 2025 — its "overshoot day" -- for this year. With average PM2.5 concentrations of 75µg/m³ in the first half of the year, Gurgaon ranked as India's fifth most polluted city, according to the think-tank."The monitoring gap throughout most of 2025 was a major setback, highlighting a vulnerability we must address nationally. Better planning by regulators and administrations is imperative so that no other community is left in the dark on air quality. This is a health emergency that demands constant vigilance," said Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst at think-tank Envirocatalysts.Dahiya added that the new contracts will ensure that policymakers and experts have adequate data to combat air pollution.