Delhi and three of its neighbouring States have come together to draw a three-month action plan to combat air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR). The action plan, which was drafted at a meeting of environment Ministers and officers of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, envisaged strict action against polluting vehicles in Delhi, phasing out of 18 coal-based industrial units in Ghaziabad, ban on registration of non-BS IV compliant vehicles in Haryana and stepping up efforts to phase out three old polluting power-generating units of the Badarpur Thermal Power Plant of NTPC in Delhi.
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, who chaired the meet, told mediapersons that NTPC has decided to convert Units IV and V of Badarpur Plant with retro-fitting, which will reduce emission load from two-thirds to one-thirds.
NTPC has also decided to phase out Units I, II and III in a time-bound manner. He also added that the Centre is forming rules for handling construction and demolition waste.
Rajasthan is taking effective steps to manage construction and demolition waste and will inspect the fuel quality being used in industrial units in Bhiwadi. The Minister also said that directions for non-burning of biomass have been issued. He mentioned of setting up of biomass burning help lines in Haryana, UP and Rajasthan on the line of similar set up in Delhi.
The Minister announced that New Delhi Municipal Corporation, NDMC, is coming out with the first plant for plasma gasification in Asia. This facility will treat polluting material and convert it into gas. Other action plans include strict implementation of ban on post-harvest stubble burning and setting up a number of bio-waste treatment plants by MCD and NDMC in the Capital.
The review of work and implementation on the three-month action plan will be done in first or second week of July. “The Governments of three States and Delhi will henceforth come out with their joint medium-term and long-term plan to curb air pollution in the entire national capital region”, said Javadekar. He had earlier stated of coming out with guidelines against pollution in the NCR region within 15 days.
The guidelines would not only deal with dust released from construction butl also frame rules for recycling so that the debris can be converted into ready-mix concrete, pavement blocks and concrete bricks.