Considering banning industrial activities at NCR pollution hotspots when air quality is severe: EPCA

   New Delhi, Dec 10: The Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority is seriously considering banning industrial, construction and demolition activities at major pollution hotspots in Delhi-NCR when air quality levels reach ‘severe’ category.

          The Central Pollution Control Board-led task force on November 22 recommended to the EPCA that industrial, construction and demolition activities should be banned in major hotspot areas when air quality levels reach ‘severe’ category.

          In a meeting on Friday with various oil and gas companies, such as Adani gas, Haryana City Gas, IGL and GAIL, EPCA chairperson Bhure Lal lashed out at them asking the reason for not being able to switch to cleaner sources of energy for their operations.

          “We are seriously considering a proposal from the CPCB to shut down industries in the area where the pollution reaches severe,” EPCA member Sunita Narain said, adding, “The authority will write to industries asking for a breakup of their pricing of piped natural gas and what are the terms on which they supply it to the consumers.”

          The representatives of the firms contended that switching to electricity or gas is proving to be expensive in comparison to coal.

          On December 4, the CPCB-led taskforce identified 21 areas vulnerable to high pollution in Delhi-NCR and directed the respective municipal corporations to take “focussed actions” to mitigate the affects.

          It has also asked the authorities to carry out inspection at Loni Bhopura in Ghaziabad, from where repeated complaints of violations of environmental norms have been received, according to the minutes of a meeting of the taskforce held in Delhi.

          The taskforce has identified 15 pollution hotspots in Delhi. They are — Anand Vihar, Bawana, CRRI Mathura Road, DTU, Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, Dwarka-Sector 8, Jahangirpuri, Mundaka, NSIT Dwarka, Narela, Okhla Phase-2, R K Puram, Rohini, Shadipur, Wazirpur.

          In NCR areas outside Delhi, six hotspots have been identified. They are — Sector-16A in Faridabad, Vikas Sadan in Gurgaon, Vasundhara in Ghaziabad, Knowledge Park-III in Greater Noida, Sector-125 in Noida and RIICO Industrial Area-III in Bhiwadi.

          Delhi has been battling alarming levels of pollution for nearly two months with the air quality hovering between “very poor” and “severe”, and slipping into “poor” on better days.