Directions issued to stop work at six large construction sites in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said directions have been issued to stop work at six large construction and demolition sites and 11 ready-mix concrete plants in the city for violating pollution norms. It is mandatory to install anti-smog guns at construction and demolition sites larger than 20,000 square metres, he said.

“There are 39 sites with a built-up area of 20,000 square metres. Six of these sites do not have anti-smog guns and have been told to stop work,” Rai told reporters.

These include the demolition sites of the National Buildings Construction Corporation at GPRA Netaji Nagar and GPRA Sarojini Nagar, the FICCI Auditorium, the demolition site of the Central Public Works Department at Kasturba Nagar, the construction sites of the CRPF Headquarters (CGO Complex) and GPRA Tyagraj Nagar.

“I will visit these sites on Friday to ascertain why they have not installed anti-smog guns,” Rai said.

The government has also imposed fines ranging between Rs 20,000 and Rs 5 lakh on 31 RMC plants for not taking measures to prevent dust pollution.

Eleven of these plants, where the violations were of a “serious nature”, have been told to stop work, the minister said.

He added that the environment department has set up 14 inspection teams to check violations of pollution norms.

Rai also called for a stricter enforcement of guidelines to check dust pollution at construction and demolition sites and RMC plants.

“This anti-dust campaign will continue in a mission mode till October 15 and strict action will be taken against the violators,” he said.

Asked about the real-time source apportionment study jointly conducted by the city government and Washington University, the minister said a three member-committee has been set up to analyse the report and the findings will be shared thereafter.

Starting October 15, stricter measures to fight air pollution will also come into force in Delhi and its neighbouring areas as part of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which was first implemented in Delhi-NCR in 2017.

These measures include increasing the frequency of bus and metro services, hiking parking fees and stopping the use of diesel generator sets when the air quality turns poor.

When the situation turns “severe”, GRAP recommends a closure of brick kilns, stone crushers and hot-mix plants, sprinkling of water, frequent mechanised cleaning of roads and maximising power generation from natural gas.

The measures to be followed in the “emergency” situation include stopping the entry of trucks in Delhi, a ban on construction activities and introduction of the odd-even car-rationing scheme.