DPCC seeks experts to audit Delhi’s red-category polluting industries

The DPCC seeks experts to assess compliance of "red category" industries in Delhi with pollution norms, requiring inspections and technical reports.

Updated on: Oct 9, 2025, 08:09:58 IST

By Jasjeev Gandhiok

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The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has invited an expression of interest (EoI) from individuals and expert organisations to help it assess whether “red category” industries in the Capital are adequately complying with pollution control norms.

Sectors like power plants, tanneries and cement factories fall under red-category units. (HT Archive)

According to officials, the empanelled experts or agencies will be required to inspect these industries and prepare “adequacy reports”, which are technical assessments determining whether a unit’s pollution control measures such as effluent treatment plants, air filters or waste management facilities are sufficient for the type of industry. Based on these reports, DPCC will review the industry’s compliance, they said.

Officials added that the process will involve field inspections and laboratory testing of samples in facilities accredited by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) or the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). “The idea is to get independent verification of whether these systems are working as prescribed,” an official said.

Red-category industries are classified as the most polluting, with a Pollution Index score of 60 or above. These typically include sectors such as thermal power plants, cement factories and tanneries, which are involved in high-combustion and emission-heavy processes.

DPCC has said that only institutions or experts with a minimum of five years of experience in these fields are eligible to apply. Academic institutions, it added, must offer postgraduate engineering programmes, with the lead researcher being at least at the assistant professor level or holding a master’s degree in environmental or civil engineering. Each applicant must also have at least five qualified technical staff members.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jasjeev Gandhiok
Jasjeev Gandhiok is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times, where he covers environment, climate change, the clean energy transition and wildlife at the National Bureau. Gandhiok has over a decade of experience in journalism and is based in Delhi. He has reported extensively on Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). This includes the region's air pollution woes, a polluted Yamuna and on urban wildlife still thriving in the region. He joined HT in October 2021. Prior to that, he had five-year stint at The Times of India in Delhi, where he also covered Delhi, with a focus on environment and wildlife. Gandhiok has covered some recent events around the Capital too, ranging from the farmers' protests, the northeast Delhi riots and the CAA-NRC protests, reporting from the ground on all of these. He also travels across the country to report on how environment and climate change impact everyday life, while also writing on endangered species. His reports in 2019 on toxic leachate from Delhi's landfills led to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) taking suo motu cognisance and ultimately asking the state government to start bio-mining to flatten and remove all three landfills in the capital. He also closely tracks the implementation of government policies on climate, renewable energy and environmental protection. His focus remains on impactful, public-interest journalism which explains how environmental decisions affect people's everyday lives.Read More

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