Haryana pollution board mandates construction sites to register on dust control portal

The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) on Friday asked deputy commissioners and civic agencies to ensure that all construction and demolition activities taking place in Gururgram and other districts are registered with the dust control application and portal launched for the purpose. P Raghvendra Rao, chairman, HSPCB, said that it is mandatory to register these activities in areas of 500 sq metres or more. Rao held a virtual meeting with officials from all districts in Haryana from Chandigarh on Thursday and announced that the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) will come into effect from October 1.

The dust control portal for monitoring pollution levels at construction and demolition sites was launched last year. According to Rao, 56 projects have registered with the portal till now and the response has been positive. “I have asked the district administration and pollution department to ensure that all construction and demolition sites over 500 sq metres in size get registered on the portal. This will help in better monitoring these sites, particularly when the air quality deteriorates,” he said.

Rao further informed that the data available on the portal will help the pollution department and other civic agencies to keep a check on the sites and to ensure that dust mitigation measures are enforced on time. “A regular watch will be kept on these sites and measures such as regular spraying of water, and keeping the construction material covered are being followed, he added.

A pollution department official said that data from the portal will also be shared with other civic agencies to ensure better enforcement of dust mitigation measures, and to implement construction bans ordered by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). He further said that developers are required to self-monitor and self-audit their activities on parameters provided for compliance with dust control measures.