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.

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.