MCG working on action plan for 14 most-polluted areas in the city

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) are together working on individual action plans for reducing air-pollution

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) are together working on individual action plans for reducing air-pollution at 14 hot spots across the city. These spots comprise the city’s 10 most-polluted spots, the three most-congested stretches, and the solitary landfill at Bandhwari, said officials on Monday.

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Officials of the civic body and CSE visited these areas on both Friday and Saturday to identify the hot spots in each areas and understand the different types of violations that can be found in these areas. Based on their findings, remedial measures would be taken and enforcement of Grap measures would be strengthened if necessary.

Ten most-polluted spots

The 10 most-polluted spots in the city, as per MCG’s air lab data, are Sector 14, DLF-4, DLF-5, Sector 44, Sector 49, Sushant Lok-1, Udyog Vihar, Sadar Bazaar, Basai Chowk, and areas around Sirhaul toll plaza. The air lab, which opened on October 15, monitors air-pollution data from 24 air-monitors located across the city.

CSE programme officer Shambhavi Shukla said that the types of violation found at each of these 10 spots were almost similar in nature.“We found large-scale constructions at these sites, generating construction and demolition (C&D) waste and accumulation of dust caused by uncovered construction material. In each of them, illegal dumping of C&D waste in vacant areas could be easily spotted. Another common feature was large-scale waste-burning,” said Shukla.

Three most-congested stretches

On Monday, the teams also visited the three most congested spots in the city, namely Subhash Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, and Sohna Road, with the aim of finding the need for engineering changes that can reduce congestion and fix potholes and broken roads.

Shukla said that although the road construction at these stretches, barring Sohna Road, was largely of superior quality, the presence of road dust and high traffic volume were the primary causes of air pollution.

“Pollution caused by vehicular traffic was high at each of these three points. However, we also found that a lot of excavated soil, which had been piled up on the footpaths at these three stretches, is leftover from infrastructure projects recently undertaken. These were leading to a lot of suspended particles in the air and causing further deterioration in the air quality,” said Shukla.

At both Sohna Road and Subhash Chowk, large-scale construction activities are currently being undertaken as part of the Sohna elevated road project. Hero Honda Chowk has also witnessed several engineering changes over the last two years, leading to the construction of a bi-directional flyover and an underpass at the junction.

Shukla further said that the teams also found the presence of the highly-polluting diesel auto-rickshaws at both Subhash Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk and would recommend appropriate action against them in the report.

City solitary landfill

The team also visited the Bandhwari landfill on Monday to take stock of the situation.“We had received a lot of complaints about open waste-burning around the Bandhwari landfill. Although we didn’t find such cases at the landfill itself, we spotted few such instances in the nearby areas. In addition, the MCG had also received complaints with pictures of open waste-burning in the area,” said Shukla, who added the action plan for each of the 14 spots would only be compiled following a meeting with senior MCG officials, where all the findings would be discussed and analysed with remedial and enforcement measures being suggested.

Although enforcement teams from the civic body have been fining on-ground violations of the Grap measures, officials said that they needed additional measures to curb rising air pollution in the city.

“MCG believes in an inclusive approach to ensure that we check and penalise all violators. We hence felt that there was a need for greater supervision on the matter along with a scientific approach. Thus, the MCG has initiated several new measures in this regard such as observing pollution data through its air-lab, involving residents and non-profit organisations such as CSE to assist in this endeavour,” said Chahat Sanghvi, consultant, MCG commissioner office.

Last week, the civic body formed civil defence teams, comprising of around 60 resident volunteers, to scan the city for polluting activities, such as waste-burning and dust pollution. Since the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) measures came into effect in the city on October 15, MCG has issued 129 fines worth ₹29.70 lakh to violators.

MCG has issued 13 fines and recovered ₹65,000 for open waste-burning. Twenty fines have been issued by the MCG for illegal C&D dumping leading to the recovery of ₹5 lakh. As many as 11 fines have been issued by the civic body for littering while 80 fines have been issued for dust mitigation leading to penalties worth ₹23.50 lakh.