Relief for Delhi’s residents, AQI improves from ‘poor’ to ‘moderate’
According to the Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) daily AQI bulletin, city's index value on Wednesday was 178, reeling under the moderate zone.
All construction and demolition activities have been banned in the national capital in line with the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
Reacting to the development, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Sunday informed that all construction and demolition activities have been prohibited in the national capital due to the city’s rising pollution.
Addressing a press conference, the Delhi Environment Minister said a total 586 teams have been formed to monitor the construction-demolition ban.
“Water sprinkling has been intensified in view of the pollution situation. 521 water sprinklers, 233 anti-smog guns, and 150 mobile anti-smog guns have been deployed to tackle pollution in Delhi. The third phase of GRAP’s restrictions would be put into effect in Delhi per CAQM’s directives,” he said.
Rai said, “As you are all aware that in Delhi and in the areas of the National Capital Region (NCR) during the months of the winter, there is usually a spike in pollution. There are three main reasons for this. The first reason for the spike is the amount of dust. The second reason is vehicular pollution and the third reason is biomass burning. Apart from these, sometimes due to some changes in the meteorological situations such as change in the speed of wind or changes in the direction of the wind, the level of pollution at certain times spikes up dramatically.”
He said, “The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) system had earlier announced that during this winter season, the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) system will be set in three days earlier based on the Air Quality Index (AQI) at the time. Right now, according to the information that we are getting from the experts, after November 1, the speed of the wind is likely to be in the range of 4-8 kmph, the direction of the wind is likely to turn towards the Northwest, and based on the available information, we have been told that the AQI levels are likely to cross 400, which comes in the “severe” category. Because of these data points, the third stage of GRAP will come into force and there was a meeting of the CAPM held yesterday and they have announced these changes.”
The Delhi Environment Minister said, “Today in Delhi, we held a meeting with all the stakeholders, particularly those who are engaged in the construction business – PWD, CPWD, MCD, DDA, Railways and all the agencies working in the construction sites and informed them about the ban on construction and demolition work.”
“According to the CAQM order, we will implement all the regulations for Delhi. This year, we have also worked towards ensuring better implementation of the order. In previous years, we had noticed that despite a ban being enforced, there were some sites where work was still ongoing,” he said.
Rai said, “We formed 586 teams under various departments that will monitor these sites and ensure that the order of CAQM is followed diligently. These teams, like we mentioned are from various departments such as – there are three teams of DMRC, 1 team of NDMC, 6 teams of PWD, 4 teams of Delhi Cantonment Board, 300 teams of MCD, 33 teams of DPCC, 20 teams of DSIIDC, 6 teams of CPWD, 33 teams of DDA, 14 teams of DJB, 165 teams of Revenue Department and 1 team of Irrigation and Flood Control Department.”
He said these teams will monitor the implementation of the ban that has been imposed from today on construction and demolition work.
“Until now, these teams were involved in monitoring dust norms and their implementation, but as the ban on construction comes into force from today, these teams will monitor its implementation,” the Delhi Environment Minister said.
He said there are some exceptions to this ban on construction and demolition work, but even in these places, the norms of construction and dust management need to be strictly implemented.
Rai said if at any of these places, there is any violation of the norms then these places will also be shut by the Delhi Government.
“Some of the prominent places that can carry out construction work include the railway stations and construction work of the Railways Department, Metro stations and their construction work, airports, ISBT and its terminals and also any activity related to national defence is permitted. There are also exceptions for hospitals and other health care facilities and construction for linear public projects such as highways, roads, flyovers and so on. Besides this, interior work such as plumbing-related activities and other furniture-related work can be carried out in Delhi. The activities on which a ban will be implemented include construction and demolition work, boring and drilling, digging and any activity related to movement of soil, movement of vehicles on unpaved roads and so on,” the Delhi Environment Minister said.
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