Encroachments at Delhi's Anand Vihar bus terminal adding to air pollution

An environmental authority on Tuesday said excessive encroachments, poor garbage management and wrong parking of vehicles near Delhi's Anand Vihar bus terminal were aggravating the poor air quality in one of the worst polluted regions of the capital.

The Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) inspected the inter-state bus terminus in east Delhi on Tuesday.

The authority said it found that massive traffic congestion and slow traffic movement in Anand Vihar was caused by "excessive encroachment within and outside the bus terminal".

Buses stationed at wrong spots was also one the anomalies found by the EPCA. The team also found garbage dumped at several places across the ISBT and lack of public conveniences -- all leading to aggravation in the air-quality in one of the worse polluted regions in Delhi, an EPCA official told IANS.

The team led by EPCA chairman Bhure Lal directed the authorities of the bus terminus to fix within a month the anomalies at the 25-acre facility that operates bus services between Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Emissions of fine particles like PM2.5 increase by 1.5 to two times due to congested or slow moving traffic, especially from diesel engines.

"There are other places to be inspected as well. The EPCA chairperson's surprise inspection at Anand Vihar is just one of those places," the official said.

On Tuesday, the Central Pollution Control Board in Anand Vihar recorded 218 units of PM2.5 and 482 units of PM10 at 12.58 pm, while the past 24 hours record found the PM2.5 at 238.48 units and PM10 at 699.07 units.

The international permissible limit for PM2.5 is 25 micrograms per cubic metre, while for India it is 60. For PM10, the safe limit is 100 units.

A day before Diwali, the EPCA started implementing the "very poor" and "severe" categories of its Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) -- which includes stricter measures -- to curb air pollution in Delhi and adjoining areas.

--IANS

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