225 construction sites served closure notices over dust norm violations

The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has issued closure notices to 225 construction and demolition (C&D) sites in Gurugram North over the past week for failing to register on the dust-monitoring portal and comply with mandatory pollution-control measures, officials said

The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has issued closure notices to 225 construction and demolition (C&D) sites in Gurugram North over the past week for failing to register on the dust-monitoring portal and comply with mandatory pollution-control measures, officials said.

The action follows the implementation of Stage 1 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across Delhi-NCR on October 21 after air quality deteriorated following Dussehra. (HT Archive)

The action follows the implementation of Stage 1 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across Delhi-NCR on October 21 after air quality deteriorated following Dussehra.

Gurugram has more than 900 active C&D sites, which are required to implement dust-control measures prescribed by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). Officials said further action could follow against sites that fail to comply with the notices.

Under CAQM directions, construction projects on plots measuring 500 square metres or more must register on the state’s dust mitigation portal and install geo-fenced pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras and low-cost PM2.5 and PM10 sensors. Live camera feeds must be linked to the HSPCB portal and CAQM’s Integrated Command and Control Centre in Delhi.

The latest action follows a series of enforcement drives undertaken by HSPCB since September. On September 10, the board issued notices to more than 400 construction sites in southern Gurugram after inspections found missing cameras, disrupted live feeds, non-functional air quality sensors and inadequate camera coverage.

Last week, the board also recommended closure of 13 construction sites for failing to install the required cameras and air quality sensors. Officials said at the time that Gurugram had 974 identified active C&D sites, of which 898 had cameras linked to the portal, but only 524 had air quality sensors installed.

The enforcement drive comes amid concerns over the effectiveness of remote monitoring at construction sites. In September, CAQM pulled up HSPCB over persistent monitoring failures, noting that only six sites in Gurugram North and five in Gurugram South had functional camera links during a verification exercise in June.