More than two months after the Supreme Court ordered the installation of anti-smog guns at all large construction sites among other locations to reduce dust pollution, the devices have been installed at 14 of the 47 large projects in Delhi.
But most of the government agencies, including the municipal corporations and the Public Works Department, are yet to comply to letters sent by the Delhi Pollution Control Board (DPCC) to instal anti-smog guns, said officials.
The anti-smog gun sprays nebulised water droplets into the air through high-pressure propellers, which help dust particles settle down. “The remaining 33 sites have informed us that they will instal the anti-smog guns as soon as they get the supply,” a Delhi government official told The Hindu.
On January 13, the Supreme Court had said that anti-smog guns should be mandatory in projects that require environmental clearance from the State or Centre, and have a built-up area of over 20,000 square metres.
The DPCC then made a list of all projects that have taken an environmental clearance and wrote to them on January 22, asking them to come up with a plan in 30 days, and then gave them a deadline of March 18 to instal the devices. “We will analyse the condition and give a fresh deadline to the remaining 33 projects,” the official said.
The DPCC wrote to all the five municipal bodies in Delhi, the Public Works Department, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on January 16, and instructed them to issue directions to contractors who carry out the latter’s works to instal anti-smog guns.
“Most of them are yet to respond to us except for NHAI and NBCC. All the municipal corporations said that they are busy with dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. We will send them reminders,” the official said.
An anti-smog gun has been parked at the construction site in India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO). But it has been used only at one spot.
“For the last few days, it has been at this spot. We need a tractor to pull it as the 500-litre tank makes it heavy for even two people to move it. So, we have been using it only at this part of the site,” a worker told The Hindu .
Though the site had rented two such devices, one was not functioning and the other was taken out of operation, according to officials at the site. The device was not able to control dust at the site as it was stationed only spot in the vast area.
