Hyderabad air quality has improved on the annual PM10 measure reviewed by Telangana’s Air Quality Monitoring Committee, but the state’s wider trend is uneven. Hyderabad’s annual average concentration fell from 86 micrograms per cubic metre in 2019–20 to 80 µg/m³ in 2025–26, while neighbouring Sangareddy recorded a sharper decline from 87 to 78 µg/m³. Nalgonda moved in the opposite direction, rising from 59 to 71 µg/m³ during the same period.
The contrast is important because it shows that air pollution is not being shaped by one statewide pattern. The AQMC review, held at the Secretariat and chaired by Ahmed Nadeem, principal secretary of the Forest, Environment, Science and Technology Department and chairman of the committee, examined air-quality trends alongside the implementation of pollution-control measures. Telangana Pollution Control Board member secretary Ravi, who is also the committee’s member convenor, and officials from several departments attended the meeting.
The committee recorded that the Air Quality Index in Hyderabad, Sangareddy and Nalgonda was predominantly in the Satisfactory to Moderate categories. That broad classification, however, does not erase the difference between the three locations. The annual PM10 figures indicate that improvement in one urban area cannot automatically be treated as evidence of uniform progress across a region with different sources of emissions, land uses and transport conditions.
The review’s response is built around the Central Pollution Control Board-approved action plan. Its components include scientific monitoring, identifying pollution sources, controlling road dust, reducing vehicular emissions, expanding green cover and increasing public awareness. These measures place air-quality management within the daily responsibilities of multiple institutions rather than treating it as a problem that can be solved by the pollution-control board alone.
Monitoring capacity is a central part of that institutional framework. Work is under way to establish 13 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations in the CURE area. A technical committee has been formed to identify locations scientifically so that the stations generate representative data. The stated emphasis on location matters because monitoring stations are expected to describe surrounding conditions accurately; their value depends not only on the number of machines installed but also on where they are placed and which urban activities they capture.
The Telangana Pollution Control Board is also expanding the use of low-cost sensors. Eight units have already been installed in Bollaram and Jeedimetla, with more proposed at recycling, crushing, construction and demolition sites. These locations point to a significant feature of the urban pollution challenge: particulate emissions are connected not only to traffic but also to the changing physical form of cities, including construction activity, material handling and industrial operations.
The AQMC identified road dust as a key measure for reducing particulate pollution in urban areas. The proposed and ongoing responses include road improvement, end-to-end paving, mechanical sweeping, increasing green cover along traffic corridors, and developing mini forests and Miyawaki plantations. The list combines hard infrastructure, maintenance operations and landscape interventions. It also suggests that air-quality policy is partly a question of how streets are built and maintained, not merely how emissions are regulated.
That operational challenge was reflected in a workshop conducted by the TGPCB on mechanical road sweeping for officials from three urban local bodies. Around 100 officials participated, and the recommendations are expected to be considered during the next service procurement process. The procurement reference is significant because the effectiveness of dust control depends on municipal contracting, equipment availability, route coverage, frequency of sweeping and the ability of local bodies to translate technical recommendations into routine services. The supplied review does not specify the municipalities, contract values or service standards, leaving those details for future scrutiny.
Vehicle emissions form another part of the action plan. Steps are being taken to install Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras to enable automatic challans for vehicles with expired Pollution Under Control certificates. This would connect roadside surveillance with enforcement of an existing compliance requirement. The review does not state when the cameras will become operational, how many locations will be covered or how enforcement outcomes will be measured, but the proposed system indicates an attempt to move from periodic checking towards more automated compliance monitoring.
Public transport is being positioned as a parallel emissions-reduction measure. The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation is operating 310 electric buses within Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits, with plans to expand the fleet. Electric buses allocated under the PM E-Drive scheme are also expected to be introduced in phases. The review provides no target for the final fleet size or timetable for the additional buses, so the immediate evidence is limited to the existing deployment and the stated expansion plan. Still, the bus fleet is one of the clearest links between air-quality policy and everyday urban mobility.
The differing PM10 trends also explain why source identification remains necessary. Source apportionment studies are being undertaken in Nalgonda and Sangareddy to identify the major contributors to air pollution. This is especially relevant to Nalgonda, where the annual average PM10 concentration rose by 12 µg/m³ between 2019–20 and 2025–26, even as Hyderabad and Sangareddy recorded declines. The review does not disclose the causes of that increase, and assigning responsibility before the studies are completed would go beyond the available evidence.
The policy landscape therefore has three connected layers. The first is measurement: continuous monitoring stations, low-cost sensors and source-apportionment studies. The second is intervention: paving, mechanical sweeping, green cover, emission reduction and public awareness. The third is enforcement and implementation: procurement by urban local bodies, Pollution Under Control compliance, camera-based challans and the phased deployment of electric buses. Progress will depend on how these layers work together, rather than on any single announcement or technology.
For Hyderabad, the decline from 86 to 80 µg/m³ provides evidence of improvement, but not of resolution. The city remains part of a wider urban system in which traffic corridors, construction and demolition sites, industrial areas and municipal street maintenance can influence particulate pollution. The proposed expansion of monitoring around sites such as Bollaram and Jeedimetla indicates that authorities are attempting to make those localised patterns more visible.
For Telangana, the Nalgonda increase is the clearest reason to avoid a statewide success narrative. The same review that records lower annual PM10 averages in two locations also records a substantial rise in another. That makes geographically specific monitoring and source studies essential to policy design. Measures that address road dust or vehicle emissions in Hyderabad may not be sufficient for a different pollution profile in Nalgonda.
The evidence currently confirms a mixed picture: measured annual PM10 levels have fallen in Hyderabad and Sangareddy, risen in Nalgonda, and remained within predominantly Satisfactory to Moderate AQI categories across the three areas. Authorities are expanding the monitoring network, preparing additional sensors, strengthening road-dust controls, considering automated PUC enforcement and increasing electric-bus operations. The next significant indicators will be the locations and functioning of the 13 monitoring stations, the findings of the Nalgonda and Sangareddy source-apportionment studies, and the implementation of the proposed municipal and transport measures.
