NEW DELHI: The Centre on Saturday cranked up its pace to keep Delhi and the NCR off the hazardous air by banning construction and demolition activities immediately. The government enforced Stage III of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) following the weather prediction of air quality deteriorating to “severe” zone. GRAP is a set of anti-air pollution measures followed in the capital and its vicinity according to the severity of the situation.
The ban on construction activities will continue till further orders, said a sub-committee of the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR & Adjoining Areas (CAQM) following an emergency meeting on Saturday. The CAQM comes under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The CAQM measure may affect housing projects in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and other areas.
Essential projects concerning national security, defence, railways, and metro rail, among others, have been kept out of the ban. “The air quality is likely to deteriorate and remain in ‘severe’ category from October 31 to November 1 and for the subsequent six days, the air quality is likely to fluctuate between ‘severe’ to ‘very poor’ category,” the CAQM said in its statement.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi’s 24-hour average air quality index stood at 397 at 4 pm, the worst since January. It was 354 on Thursday, 271 on Wednesday, 302 on Tuesday and 312 on Monday (Diwali). The construction work was banned a week after Diwali the previous year as well.
According to the data sought from CAQM, non-adherence of prescribed norms including construction ban resulted in closure of around 300 sites across various sectors till December 31 last year. Studies suggest that the dust emanates during construction and demolition activities is a major source of air pollution in the NCR contributing significantly to adverse PM (particulate matter) 2.5 and PM10 levels.
Getting to grips with bad air
GRAP-I Oct 5
Major actions
GRAP-II Oct 19
Major actions
GRAP-III Oct 29
Major actions