Only 5% of construction and demolition projects in the city with an area of 500 square metres or more have registered on the state’s web portal for dust control so far. There are around 3,000 large construction sites in Gurgaon, but just 167 are on the portal.Construction activities are banned at present under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). The Haryana State Pollution Control Board(HSPCB) has decided that it will not allow these units to operate after the plan is revoked, unless they register on the dust portal.
It’s also mandatory for such sites to install PM2.5 and PM10 sensors that send live feed to the portal, according to directives issued by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). But not a single large construction site has installed the sensors in Gurgaon so far, HSPCB said.
“We have issued notices to all large units and won’t allow them to operate if they don’t follow the norms. At present, 167 units have registered on the portal. We are conducting inspections of C&D sites which haven’t yet registered,” HSPCB regional officer Kuldeep Singh said, adding that such sites should get themselves registered at the earliest. “We will stop construction activities at these projects, impose penalties and prosecute them in the environmental court. They are responsible for adding pollution to the environment,” he added.
The pollution control board has formed six teams, each with three members, to inspect such sites. So far, no penalty has been imposed on any C&D site, but HSPCB plans to impose challans on violators. Haryana had launched the portal for real-time monitoring of pollution levels at C&D sites in January. The portal, which has a live dashboard to reflect ambient air quality status at specific sites, was launched as per CAQM’s directions issued on October 1, 2021.
CAQM direction stated, “All projects (on plot area equal to or greater than 500sqm) of construction and demolition in NCR have to mandatorily register at the web portal. Along with this, provision for video fencing equipped with remote connectivity technology will be incorporated in the web portal for effective and round-the-clock monitoring of compliance of dust mitigation measures by the project proponents. Further, the project proponents are required to install reliable and low-cost PM2.5 and PM10 sensors at the sites. It is mandatory for the proponents to install reliable and economical PM2.5 and PM10 sensors at the sites and link them to a platform with live dashboard accessibility for the pollution control board to monitor the activities.”
