‘Green’ Bengaluru’s air quality on par with Netherlands: Dutch PM Dick Schoof

Dutch PM Dick Schoof praises Bengaluru's air quality, comparing it favorably to the Netherlands during his recent visit.

Calling Bengaluru “green” and that it was the one thing that stood out to him the most, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof, said he was struck by the city’s tree cover and “air quality” during his visit on Friday (February 20, 2026).

Mr. Schoof added that he had gone for a morning run, and the air quality surprised him. “The air quality was reasonably good, certainly better than Delhi,” he said, noting that when compared with air quality levels in the Netherlands, it was “roughly the same.” 

The Netherlands PM was in Bengaluru as part of his India visit. During his brief tour to the city, he visited the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the Philips Innovation Campus, and the city’s Traffic Management Centre (TMC), where he was shown how the Bengaluru Traffic Police’s (BTP) ASTraM model functions. 

Speaking to the media about the Traffic Management Centre (TMC), he pointed at the scale of Bengaluru’s congestion challenges. “You’ve (Bengaluru) got a big traffic problem but the city has responded by building a system that brings together data from everywhere, including CCTV footage and open data sources,” he said. “They (BTP) combine it in a way that they can not only see what’s actually happening, but also can predict, not only for one day, but for a week, how the traffic will probably be,” he added. 

Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof with Karnataka DG-IGP M.A. Saleem, Bengaluru city police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Karthik Reddy and others at the Traffic Management Centre in Bengaluru on February 20, 2026. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

What surprised him most, he said, was the extent of information available and the use of open data alongside surveillance infrastructure at the TMC. “I was surprised that they (TMC) had all the information,” he said, pointing to how live CCTV feeds are combined with third-party data inputs. The integration, Mr. Schoof noted, allows authorities to respond quickly to incidents such as accidents by dispatching traffic police to the exact location and reorganising traffic flows in real time.