150 pollution hot spots in city this year: Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai

Gopal Rai also launched an advanced ‘green war room’ and Green Delhi app that will look into the problems pertaining to ‘10 kinds of pollution’ throughout winter

The Delhi government has identified 150 pollution hot spots in the city this year, up from 13 last year, for stringent monitoring and control measures, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said on Tuesday.

Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai at the launch of the advanced green war room and Green Delhi app at Delhi Secretariat, on Tuesday. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

He also launched an advanced ‘green war room’ and green app that will look into the problems pertaining to ‘10 kinds of pollution’ throughout winter. Rai said that based on the complaints received on the green Delhi app last year, the government has identified 150 pollution hot spots where focused mitigation measures will be taken.

“The 13 pollution hot spots that we had identified last year were based on consistently high levels of pollution in these areas. These 150 hot spots, however, have been selected based on the complaints of waste burning, open dumping and traffic jams that we received via the green Delhi app. We will be keeping a close watch on these areas this time from our green war room, and immediate action will be taken to control the sources of pollution there,” Rai said.

Some of the areas in the list are: Asaf Ali Road, Vijay Nagar Road, Mange Ram Park (Buddh Vihar), Bhagwan Mahavir Marg (Rithala),Vijay Vihar phase-1 (Rohini), Quresh Nagar, Swami Dayanand Enclave, Ajit Vihar, T-block Mangolpuri, Industrial Estate (Mayapuri), Janta Colony (Paschim Vihar), West Punjabi Bagh, Khanpur Colony, Raghu Nagar, Nasirpur and Subhash Market Trilokpuri.

Rai said that a 21-member team has been formed to manage the green war room, which will work 24x7 to monitor the pollution situation in the national capital. Through the green Delhi app, citizens can send any pollution-related complaint, which will be forwarded to the green war room for action.

The minister said last year 27,000 complaints were received through the app, of which more than 23,000 were resolved. While the app and the war room were launched by the government last year, Rai said, this year they have worked towards improving the technology to make these measures more efficient.

He added that the maximum number of complaints on the app came from the three municipal corporations (north, south and east Delhi municipal corporations), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), and the Public Works Department (PWD).