Air quality panel orders closure of 24 industrial units in three weeks

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has issued closure orders on 24 grossly violating industrial units across the National Capital Region since the invocation of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) Stage-I from October 6.

Overall, 52 grossly violating units/projects have been issued closure orders. “24 grossly violating industrial units and 28 construction and demolition (C&D) project sites were issued closer notices,” the Commission said. .

CAQM issues closure notices to those C&D projects which have an area greater than 500 sq metres and are not registered on a web portal for remote online monitoring, besides adhering to various directions of CAQM, rules and guidelines related to dust mitigating measures.

The closure notices come after the commission conducted a total of 472 incognito inspections carried out by the Commission in industrial areas and construction projects across NCR.  

Of the 24 industries which have been issued closer notices for not using the approved fuels 05 units were still found using coal.

The standard approved fuel list for NCR bans use of heavily polluting fuels like coal, furnace oil, wood etc.

Biomass fuels with stricter emission norms have however been permitted in NCR, outside the territorial jurisdiction of Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi considering the huge availability and need to promote environmentally sustainable use of biomass.

According to CAQM data, all the 1,784 industrial units in the NCR of Delhi have shifted to approved fuels. However, 860 such units —270 in Haryana NCR, 487 in Uttar Pradesh NCR, and 103 in Rajasthan NCR — still use heavily polluting fuels.

The Commission has issued closure directions to 45 coal based industrial units in Rajasthan. 32 coal-based units (9 in Haryana and 23 in UP) have been closed down permanently.

48 units (8 in Haryana and 40 in UP) have temporarily suspended their operations till these units are converted to approved fuels.

The commission has been informing and sensitising all stakeholders (industrial houses, commercial establishments, construction agencies, state governments etc) about the preventive, mitigative and restrictive actions required to be taken under the GRAP.

Stage-I and Stage-II of the revised GRAP were invoked by the Commission on October 5 and October 19 respectively.

The forecast of the average Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi is likely to be in “Poor” and “Very Poor” categories given the unfavourable climatic and meteorological conditions that generally prevail in the NCR during winters and the occurrence of farm fires, CAQM said.

Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was 364  at 11:07 am, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

According to data from the state-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) notification, strong winds at transport level blowing from northwest direction from stubble burning areas are likely to transport pollutants to Delhi and its share in Delhi’s PM2.5 is likely to increase further. Air quality is likely to deteriorate but remain within ‘Very Poor’ for next three days.