Greater Noida authority sets up control room to mitigate air pollution in city

The authority has also released four phone numbers where people can call and inform about violations of rules, and WhatsApp number: 8800882124 where people can send pictures of unattended construction material or waste anywhere in the city

The Greater Noida authority has set up a control room to handle issues related to air pollution in the city, officials said on Thursday. The authority has divided the city into eight zones for all the stakeholders to better implement the rules, and appointed a nodal officer who will seek reports from all zonal heads on a daily basis and inform top officials to take timely action against the violators.

The authority has also directed all developers having construction sites of area more than 20,000-square-metre to have anti-smog guns to reduce the air pollution levels. (Sunil Ghosh/HT)

Narendra Bhooshan, chief executive officer of Greater Noida authority, has directed all zonal officials to act immediately if they come across any violation of rules. The authority has also released numbers: 01202336046, 47, 48 and 49 where people can call and inform about violations of rules. Apart from this, the authority has also released WhatsApp number: 8800882124 where people can send pictures of unattended construction material or waste anywhere in the city.

“A resident can call at these phone numbers to file a complaint about violations of construction guidelines or a complaint about dumping waste at undesignated sites. Similarly, zonal officials concerned will address the WhatsApp complaints. If the zonal officials do not act on these, the nodal officer will take action,” said AK Arora, general manager of Greater Noida authority.

Greater Noida is spread over around 38,000 hectares comprising 124 villages. Nearly 600 construction sites of developers and other individual construction projects are located at different areas of the city. According to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, guidelines on construction material should not be left uncovered, sand should not be ferried without covering it with sheet, construction site should be covered with green sheet, and green belt should be developed around large size construction sites to make sure that dust is not mixed with the air, causing pollution.

“We have directed all developers having construction sites of area more than 20,000-square-metre to have anti-smog guns to reduce the air pollution levels. If the developers fail to do so, action will be taken against them,” said Bhooshan.

Under the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) to tackle air pollution in Delhi-NCR from October 15, authorities will annually ban diesel-run electricity generators, specific instructions for washing of roads, and increased patrolling of known hotspots among other measures. Grap is a set of curbs triggered in phases as the air quality deteriorates, which is typical during October-November. Farm fires in neighbouring states and cooling weather typically combine at this time of the year to blanket the region in smoke.