Ghaziabad: When it comes to pollution charts of winter months, Ghaziabad is invariably counted among the top five most polluted cities in the country, with the city, on most days, topping the charts.
So what makes Ghaziabad so polluted? According to the UP pollution control board (UPPCB), local factors are to blame. it is estimated that the contribution of local factors, such as vehicular emissions and dust, among others, to the overall pollution of the city is about 45%.
The city has about 10 lakh registered vehicles and also witnesses the movement of thousands more transit vehicles that use major roads like Delhi-Meerut Road, GT Road, NH-9 and internal roads such as Hapur Road and Ambedkar Road.
Residents say traffic congestion on major roads, multiple industrial areas and construction activities are the main causes of air pollution.
“Besides these, there are issues that crop up every winter — burning of crackers, garbage burning and crop stubble burning — which further aid pollution. Officials make plans to cover only about 30%-40% of the city, areas that are generally visible to people. The rest of the areas, however, get neglected and need more pollution control measures,” Vikrant Sharma, a Ghaziabad-based environmentalist, said.
“There is no local transport available besides shared auto-rickshaws and polluting private buses. The contributing factors to local pollution are unregulated diesel buses, industrial pollution and road dust. There is hardly any enforcement throughout the year and agencies only wake up when pollution levels go out of control,” VK Mittal, president of Kaushambi apartments RWA, said.
{{/usCountry}}“There is no local transport available besides shared auto-rickshaws and polluting private buses. The contributing factors to local pollution are unregulated diesel buses, industrial pollution and road dust. There is hardly any enforcement throughout the year and agencies only wake up when pollution levels go out of control,” VK Mittal, president of Kaushambi apartments RWA, said.
{{/usCountry}}The residents of Indirapuram areas said localities such as Indirapuram and Vaishali are getting affected by the housing construction activities and also by the construction of Phase 2 of the Delhi Meerut Expressway.
“Besides these factors, there is a lot of traffic congestion. We even went to the high court seeking a remedy, but there is hardly any action on the ground. The issues affecting our areas need round-the-year enforcement,” Alok Kumar, founder member of federation of association of apartment owners, said.
He said areas such as Vasundhara and Sahibabad are also affected by the industrial areas nearby. Construction activity on the Delhi-Meerut Road and the Regional Rapid Transit System is also hampering the air quality in these places.
The UPPCB has identified a number of pollution hot spots, besides the Sahibabad area that was identified as a pollution hot spot by the Central Pollution Control Board.
“The contribution of the local factors can be estimated to be around 45% of the total pollution. Without the external factors— such as stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana — the city should be in the ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ categories of pollution,” Utsav Sharma, the regional officer of the UPPCB, said.
“Different agencies like the Ghaziabad Development Authority, municipal corporation, fire department and others are taking up effective water sprinkling and mechanised road sweeping,” he said.
Belying his words, during an inspection on October 5, Bhure Lal, chairperson of the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority, had found polluting conditions at various locations, including Sahibabad, Bhopra, near Koyal enclave, Panchsheel Enclave, Hindon Vihar among others besides traffic and parking issues at Mohan Nagar and Kaushambi.