With Diwali near, Gurgaon to implement anti-pollution drive for 3 months

This announcement came during a clean and green drive organised at the Huda City Metro station on Friday. The drive was aimed at spreading awareness about clean and green environment.

Owing to rising level of pollution, especially during the Diwali festival every year, the district administration has planned to implement an anti-pollution drive in the city for the next three months. The state government has also planned to install 10 air monitoring stations in Gurgaon and Faridabad in the next two months.

An O2 chamber was launched by Goel at the venue where people can inhale pure oxygen as the unit has air purifying plants. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

This announcement came during a clean and green drive organised at the Huda City Metro station on Friday. The drive was aimed at spreading awareness about clean and green environment.

The anti-pollution drive will be based on the graded response action plan, which was formulated by the Environment Pollution Control and Prevention Authority (EPCA) on January 12.

“This year, suspended particulate matter was recorded above the permissible limit of 60µg/m³ in Gurgaon, which was a big concern and the situation might worsen after Diwali on October 19. Thus, with a view to curb air pollution we will be initiating an anti-pollution drive in the city,” said Vinay Pratap Singh, deputy commissioner, Gurgaon.

The PM2.5 is suspended particulate matter 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter and one of the major components in air pollution. These particles could settle in the lungs and cause respiratory problems.

Vipul Goel, Haryana minister for environment and industries, who took part in Friday’s drive,appealed to the corporate houses to join hands to plant more trees to save the environment.

“We will install 10 new air monitoring centres in Gurgaon and Faridabad to take required action. We are well aware of the situation and we are not denying that the air quality of both Gurgaon and Faridabad has remained poor last year and continued to be so for a long period. We appeal to all corporate houses to join hands to plant more trees to save the environment,” Goel said.

An O2 chamber was launched by Goel at the venue where people can inhale pure oxygen as the unit has air purifying plants.

This O2 chamber was part of the drive that aims to increase greenery around metro stations on the yellow line of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC).

The plan is to plant air purifying plants around or inside metro stations in an area of 1,000 to 10,000 square feet by Nurturing Green, a firm working towards promoting clean and green cities.

“This initiative will reduce carbon footprint. We aim to make all metro stations have a low carbon footprint,” Mangu Singh, managing director, DMRC, said.