Bengaluru’s air quality has been seriously worsening post COVID. The annual levels of PM10 saw a decline between 2018 and 2021, but has been slowly increasing since then. Government authorities say that the air quality in Bengaluru is better compared to other cities. But while the PM2.5 levels may conform to the national standards, according to a Greenpeace report it is still four to nine times higher than WHO standards. There is thus a huge need for improvement. The city, however, has used very little of the clean air funds received under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). Also non-utilisation of funds has now resulted in the funds being stalled for two years.
National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)
The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is an initiative by the Government of India aimed at improving air quality and reducing air pollution across 131 non-attainment cities including Bengaluru. Cities that consistently failed in attaining the national air quality standards are listed as non-attainment cities. These cities are funded under the NCAP budget or the 15th Finance Commission (XV-FC). Bengaluru gets its funds from the 15th XV-FC.
However, despite ambitious targets and allocated funds, on-ground impact remains minimal, with air quality frequently exceeding safe limits. Bengaluru is among the cities that have utilised the minimum percentage of funds released by the 15th Finance Commission (XV-FC) under the NCAP. This lack of utilisation and the delay in the Bruhat Bengaluru Maganagara Palike (BBMP) elections have resulted in the stalling of these funds for the last two years.
Reasons for stalling funds
According to sources from KSPCB, the XV-FC funds have not been released for the past two years (FY 2023-24 and FY2024-25) because of two main reasons: lack of a duly elected urban local body (BBMP) in the city and the non-compliance with the 75% utilisation criteria.
While the term for the previous council ended in 2020, the delay in BBMP elections has left citizens without a local government and adequate representation. Now the delay has further stalled the release of crucial clean air funds.
According to the guidelines for release and utilisation of funds, 75% usage of funds available in the preceding year (includes funds carried forward from previous years) and city-specific annual reduction of PM10 levels are mandatory for release of funds for the next financial year.
Read more: To beat air pollution, redesign Bengaluru’s action plan
City fails in clean air action
Launched in 2019, the NCAP set targets for reducing PM10 and PM2.5 pollution in key cities by 20-30% by 2024, focusing on multi-sectoral action. The deadline was later extended to 2026 with a revised target of a 40% reduction in PM10 levels compared to 2017.
According to the United Nation’s standards, an Air Quality Index (AQI) below 50 is considered safe and above 100 is considered unhealthy. In December 2025, the maximum levels of AQI recorded in the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Stations (CAAQMS) in Bengaluru ranged from 56 to 160. According to a report by Greenpeace—Spare the air 2, both PM2.5 and PM10 levels have constantly been way higher than the recommended levels of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Fund utilisation and lack of transparency
While a total fund of 541.1 crore rupees have been released under NCAP and XV-FC from 2019 to 2023 for Bengaluru alone, 253.33 crore rupees have been utilised so far.
While we tried to get details on the budget breakdown of the funds utilised, there was no official statement of expenditure available. One official said on condition of anonymity that cases have already been filed on the basis of news reports for non-utilisation of funds. The National Green Tribunal has filed a suo moto case following a report by Deccan Herald. While utilisation has picked up since the report, the stall of funding has come as a major setback.
We also filed an RTI on January 13, 2025 requesting details on the fund utilisation and the reasons for the delay. The response is still awaited.
According to a KSPCB official, the funds have mostly been used for greening activities, road works like end to end paving of roads, pothole filling, CNG processing plants, procurement of EV buses by BMTC, procuring water sprinklers, and on solid waste management.
Reasons behind delayed spending
In the first three years of the launch of NCAP, the city utilised as low as 1.39% of the total funds as borne out by data from the Centre. According to internal sources, the delay was due to administrative issues.
For Bengaluru, the BBMP must get the action plan for air quality improvement approved by the Government of Karnataka. However, for other three non-attainment cities, the district level implementation committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner can approve the action plan, while implementation is looked after by commissioners. This may be because of a lack of a duly elected body in Bengaluru.
NCAP implementation: Who is responsible?
NCAP/XV-FC grants are performance-based supplement grants; for accessing funding under NCAP, State/UT governments and their agencies must commit themselves to implementing CAPs.
Implementation under NCAP depends on the collective action and decisions of various parties – the Central Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), state governments and departments, and urban local bodies.
The state government is responsible for ensuring coordinated action by all departments and agencies at both the city and state levels, while also allocating additional funds and resources to support implementation.
It is the duty of the state Pollution Control Board (KSPCB in this case) for monitoring compliance of air quality standards and submitting utilisation certificates to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). CPCB is the nodal agency.
Also urban local bodies (BBMP in the case of Bengaluru) are responsible for allocating finances for identified activities, city specific plans and strict enforcement of certain plans under NCAP.
The lack of co-ordination among all or any of these could cause delays.
In the initial years, COVID is said to have been the primary reason behind delays. The annual action plan for the first three years was approved by the cabinet in December 2023, only after which different departments were able to start the tendering. Tender processes have also delayed action.
Anirban Banerjee works in the policy development and outreach group in the Air Quality sector of Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP). He shared that post COVID, BBMP distributed the funds to other departments during 2021-22, after which the departments initiated regulatory approval processes. In some cases, the tendering process alone took over a year. Additionally, acquiring land for infrastructure projects — whether for solid waste management, road development, or public transport — contributed to further delays, as land acquisition is a time-taking process.
Also read: The crisis choking small and mid-sized cities: Can you feel it in the air?
Other setbacks: Where’s the plan?
The city action plan was created in 2019 and submitted to the Portal for Regulation of Air Pollution in Non-Attainment Cities (PRANA) and has not been updated since then. The urban local body (BBMP in this case) should submit an annual action plan every year to the PRANA portal. According to the 17th implementation committee meeting of NCAP, Bengaluru had not submitted the annual action plan for 2024-25.
However, according to sources, the 2024-25 annual action plan for 163 crore rupees has since been revised and submitted in the PRANA portal and is yet to be approved by CPCB.
NCAP funds are crucial for improving the city’s air. However the slow progress and now the stalling of funds could only worsen pollution and public health. Thus there is a need for immediate intervention to ensure proper utilisation. The Bengaluru Climate Action and Resilience Plan (BCAP) has laid down several important plans to utilise NCAP funds to improve air quality, but there too implementation will be key to outcomes. Is the city plan geared for effective implementation? That is what we will explore in a subsequent piece.