Noida authority takes measures to curb pollution as ‘very poor’ air plagues city

Avinash Tripathi, Noida authority’s officer on special duty said the measures listed under the graded response action plan have been enforced in the city

With the air quality in Noida showing no signs of improvement and hovering in the ‘very poor’ category for quite a number of days, the Noida authority has started taking measures to control pollution in the city.

The Noida authority said that the water is also sprayed on trees and plants on the roadside as they get covered with dust. (Sourced)

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the AQI of Noida was 381 while Greater Noida recorded an AQI of 352 in the ‘very poor’ category on Saturday.

Avinash Tripathi, Noida authority’s officer on special duty (OSD), said the measures listed under the graded response action plan (Grap) have been enforced in the city. “We sprinkle water on total 134.93km of road and also on the plants and trees on the roadside using 77 tankers. Some developers were also fined on Friday for violating construction norms; we collected a fine of ₹3.35 lakh fine from them,” said Tripathi.

Tripathi said that the Noida Authority also collected 449.87 tonne of construction and demolition (C&D) waste from different sites and sent it to the C&D processing plant in Sector 80. “We also conduct mechanical sweeping of 243 km of roads on 67 routes in Noida,” he said.

On November 17, the Noida authority also inaugurated city’s first anti-smog tower along DND flyway with the aim of mitigating air pollution. The tower was built using corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds arranged from the central government’s public sector undertakings (PSUs).

Vikrant Tongad, an environmentalist, said the smog towers or outdoor air purifiers may not be effective in open areas. “Outdoor air is dynamic; the moment air is released from air purifier, the detoxified air mixes with the dense air in the surroundings, thus nullifying the overall impact,” he said.

Tongad said he visited some areas with a portable air monitoring device on Wednesday and prima facie, found that the air quality index near the anti-smog tower was no better than other parts of the city. “Some effective long-term and short-term measures are needed to check pollution,” said Tongad.

Tripathi said the anti-smog tower was set up by a private firm. “There are studies that show these measures (anti-smog tower) do have an impact on air quality. There are four pollution monitoring stations in Noida – Sector 1, Sector 62, Section 116 and Sector 125. Since there is no weather station in the tower’s neighbourhood, we do not have the readings of the air quality around it,” he said.

Amit Gupta, a resident of Prateek Wisteria in Sector 77 and a member of Progressive Community Foundation (PCF), said he filed an RTI and got a response from CPCB on Friday that it received 114 pollution related complaints from Noida in the last four years. “People had complained to the CPCB on Sameer App, Twitter, and through other medium. This shows the board is serious about the pollution problem in Noida,” he said.