New Delhi: The Commission for Air Quality Management on 28 September revised the Graded Response Action Plan for Delhi-NCR ahead of the winter pollution season, modifying certain clauses and adding new points in the citizen’s charter section.
They also amended directions 11 to 18, which deal with construction and demolition waste across the city. It further strengthened the dust monitoring mechanisms across the NCR.
According to the latest GRAP schedule, actions relating to diesel generator sets and the plying of inter-city buses in Delhi have been shifted from stage II to stage I. Restrictions on BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel cars during stage III have also now been extended to Haryana’s Sonipat district, along with border areas of Ghaziabad, Faridabad, and Gautam Buddha Nagar.
In a press conference on Tuesday, CAQM member SD Attri said that the commission, which has been implementing the GRAP for air pollution in Delhi-NCR since 2020, enacts some modifications or revisions to the schedule every year.
“Mostly we have merged and shifted certain repeated measures from stage II to stage I, relating to construction and transport sectors. We have also increased actions in the citizen charter from 22 to 34,” said Attri.
Aside from the revised GRAP schedule, Attri added that the CAQM decided on Monday to expand the monitoring and control over sites in Delhi-NCR, as stipulated in the revised directions 11 to 18.
The directions, passed in 2021, state that all construction and demolition activities in 500 sq m or more areas need to be registered on the state pollution control boards’ website portals, and need to have cameras installed for video audits. The directions earlier only applied to construction projects within the urban local bodies or municipal areas in the region.
“Since then, construction activity has increased and expanded to areas that do not fall within ULBs, but in industrial areas, highways, or development zones. So we decided to extend these directions too,” said Attri.
The new amendment states that all large construction activities located beyond municipal limits, such as in controlled areas, development areas/industrial development areas, industrial areas/zones and highway corridor zones, will also need to be registered on web portals and monitored as such.
Delhi pollution planning
The new CAQM GRAP revision comes a day after the Delhi government and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change jointly discussed an action plan for the upcoming winter season in Delhi, when the city and its surrounding areas see air quality dip to hazardous levels.
In the press briefing, the Delhi government and the ministry announced measures such as construction bans from 1 November, mandatory work-from-home for government employees, and restrictions on plying polluting vehicles in the city. These are also measures that are part of the CAQM’s GRAP and are implemented as and when the air quality index reaches a certain threshold.
However, the commission said that the measures laid down by the Delhi government are independent of the CAQM’s jurisdiction.
“The GRAP is implemented by CAQM across all of Delhi-NCR and multiple states. Above and beyond, if the state governments want to implement their own pollution curbing measures, they are more than welcome,” said Attri.