Looking beyond Delhi, the Centre has decided to launch dedicated air pollution abatement programmes in around 100 cities, including Mumbai, with a target to reduce pollution level in each of these cities by 35% in the next three years and 50% in the next five years.The plan will be part of the Centre’s ongoing National Clean Air Programme , where the environment ministry in coordination with the state governments would work on achieving results within the set timeline.Besides Mumbai, the list of 100 cities, identified on the basis of level of pollutants such as NO2, PM2.5 and PM10, includes all major cities like Pune, Nagpur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Chandigarh and Kolkata.“We will strengthen the National Clean Air Programme in around 100 non-attainment cities where parameters (air quality) are not right and require attention,” said environment minister Harsh Vardhan.The programme will include expanding monitoring network, setting up of air information systems, certification of monitoring institutions, air quality forecasting systems, strengthening of implementation mechanism, awareness and capacity building drives among others. All civic authorities in those cities will work in coordination with the respective state pollution control boards.Support for strict implementation of identified actions for abatement of air pollution from all sources will be the key component of the programme. “The idea is to implement all the measures by taking lessons from the best practices of other countries,” said an official.