Residents choke on dust as Gurugram Sector 67 waste dump grows

Rampant construction and unfinished roads, along with a construction waste dump on Maidawas Road, opposite Victory Valley Apartments, are the main concerns of the residents of Gurugram’s Sector 67.

After a recent study by medical professionals of Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi found the presence of toxic heavy metals in the air around Gurugram’s Sector 67, residents in the area have once again complained about polluting activities around them. Rampant construction and unfinished roads are their main concerns, along with a construction waste dump on Maidawas Road, opposite Victory Valley Apartments.

Residents of Gurugram’s Sector 67 say the size of the dump has been increasing for two years now, and has not been removed despite the NGT issuing directives to that effect over a year ago. (Yogendra Kumar/HT Photo)

Residents say the size of the dump has been increasing for two years now, and has not been removed despite the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issuing directives to that effect over a year ago. Across this stretch, where premium condominiums, villas and commercial complexes such as M3M Golf Estate, M3M Cosmopolitan, M3M Urbana, Emaar Marbella, Ireo Victory Valley and Ireo Uptown are located, road dust re-suspension is prominent, with sand deposits lining the shoulders of roads for kilometres on end. Construction activities are also continuing in full swing, as confirmed by spot visits by a Hindustan Times team over the last week.

“This has led to an unbearable amount of dust in the air. Visibility is very low in the morning ,” Kush Kochgaway, a resident of Park View Spa Next, said.

Kochgaway also said mandatory measures to fight dust pollution prescribed under the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) protocol were not being carried out by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) in the area. Officials, however, contested this claim. “We are carrying out these activities in Sector 67, but they are being done at night, which is why most people have not taken notice,” an executive engineer said on condition of anonimity.

Last month, an exercise conducted by Dr Arvind Kumar, chairman, centre for chest surgery, Ganga Ram Hospital, found “substantially elevated levels of iron and calcium particulates” in Sector 67, indicating that “ambient air was adversely impacted by fugitive emissions of construction materials”.

“The results are not surprising at all. So many residents, especially children, have developed respiratory disorders,” Gautam Wankhede, a resident, said.

As for the construction waste dump, residents had taken the matter to the NGT in 2017, claiming that the site — comprising at least a half acre’s worth of demolition waste — is in violation of Construction & Demolition (C&D) Waste Management Rules (2012), and poses a health risk for locals. Subsequently, the state pollution control board and NGT had directed the MCG to address the issue, but the dump is continuing to grow.

Kochgaway had also lodged a complaint with the chief minister’s grievance redressal window in 2017, but “the complaint was closed without any action being taken on ground”, he said.

Yashpal Yadav, commissioner, MCG, said the matter had not been brought to his notice earlier. “We are, however, in the process of introducing portable C&D waste units which will reprocess this waste and make it reusable,” Yadav said.