Environment minister reviews air pollution action plans of Ghaziabad, Noida

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, on Monday, chaired a high-level meeting to undertake a detailed review of the Action Plans of Ghaziabad and Noida aimed at tackling air pollution in the two cities.

This was the first review under a series of review meetings on City-specific action plans in NCR, which would culminate in a State-level review in the coming days.

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The review is being conducted in the prescribed format, as desired by the Minister during the earlier review meeting held on December three to assess progress and strengthen on-ground implementation.

Detailed presentations were given by the senior officers from the two cities on the action taken.

The detailed review of the action plans was undertaken on the basis of the following key parameters:

• Adoption of smart traffic management systems to curb vehicular emissions;

• Compliance of industrial units with prescribed pollution norms;

• Status of commercial electric vehicle (EV) fleet and availability of charging infrastructure;

• Strengthening end-to-end public transport systems and parking facilities;

• Infrastructure augmentation for management of Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)/legacy waste;

• End-to-end paving/tiling of roads to reduce dust generation;

• Status of deployment of Mechanical Road Sweeping Machines (MRSMs) and use of anti-smog guns/water sprinklers;

• Greening of pathways and open areas;

• Jan Bhagidari initiatives, including IEC activities and app-based grievance redressal mechanisms, inter alia.

The Minister took an update from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on the installation of Online Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (OCEMS) in the remaining industrial units, along with the status of on-site inspections and handholding support being provided for installations.

He directed strict adherence to the December 31 deadline for OCEMS installation and instructed that stringent action be taken against non-compliant units. CPCBs and SPCBs were also directed to inspect polluting and delinquent industries in peri-urban areas and undertake required corrective measures.

Mr Yadav requested the Commission for Air Quality Management in Delhi-NCR (CAQM) to further fine-tune the parameters used for implementation of city action plans and collate them for reviewing the progress for Delhi-NCR as a whole, in the coming days.