8-Oct-2020: EPCA directs slew of measures as Delhi air turns noxious again

The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) directed a slew of measures to governments in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, after air quality in the national capital remained ‘poor’ for the second day October 8, 2020.

The measures come under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), an emergency plan to combat air pollution. It lists several measures depending on the category of air quality and will come into force from October 15.

The measures include banning the use of diesel generator sets (other than essential / emergency services) in Delhi and in its satellite towns of Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad and Gurugram.

EPCA, a Supreme Court-mandated body, has also asked large construction projects, including highways and the Delhi Metro to provide an undertaking to the state pollution control boards / committees. The undertaking will state that these project operators will assure adherence to prescribed norms / guidelines for dust management.

EPCA has also asked industries to provide an undertaking that they will use only authorised fuel and will not operate without adequate pollution control measures.

The air quality index (AQI) October 8 was 208, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s bulletin. The AQI was based on an average of the past 24 hours.

An AQI from 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’. Above 500 is the ‘severe-plus or emergency’ category.

The winter period sees worsening air quality because there is less dispersion and lower temperatures trap pollutants close to the ground. It is therefore necessary to ensure that the levels do not rise further, even with coming winter weather conditions in the days to come.

Additional steps will be taken if pollution turned severe, which include closure of power plants in the National Capital Region (NCR) that do not adhere to the 2017 emission norms, and restraint on private transport through measures as listed in GRAP to enhance parking fees.

The NCR cities of Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Noida and Faridabad were in the ‘poor’ category, while Gurugram was in the ‘moderate’ category October 8.

9-Jul-2019: Bolster public transport to reduce air pollution: EPCA

To reduce air pollution in Delhi, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) requested the Supreme Court to intervene in the “grossly inadequate” public transport infrastructure of the city.

In a ‘special report’ submitted to the SC on July 1, the EPCA urged it to intervene for the approval of Phase IV of Delhi Metro, which is stuck between the Central and Delhi governments. It also requested the SC to ask the government to speed up the process to purchase more buses. Cities like Beijing have 107 buses per lakh people while Delhi has 17 buses per lakh people. The proposal for phase IV of Delhi Metro was submitted in 2014 and work was to begin by 2016 and “further delay will cost the city enormously”.

The stalemate between the governments are on different financial aspects of the project. The Delhi government has on April 10, 2019, communicated its direction that Delhi Metro Rail Corporation would not start the work till these issues are resolved.

The EPCA said there are four issues between the governments — taxes, sharing of land cost, bearing operational cost and repayment of JICA loan. Two of these are “notional”, adding that the Centre says operational cost should be borne by the Delhi government while the latter demands a 50:50 share. The DMRC stated that the costs involved in the project costs would increase with delay.

The Supreme Court in 1998 stated that the city should have 10,000 buses, but there are only 5,279 buses in the city. All DTC buses are above 8-10 years. The maintenance contract for the operation of the buses is for 10 years. So replacement becomes critical as more and more buses would be phased out in the coming 2-3 years. It is clear that the number of additional buses that will be on Delhi roads by January 2020 would be 1,000 and an additional 650 buses could be on roads soon after. This would not be sufficient and therefore, the procurement strategies of the remaining buses must be expedited.

7-Oct-2018: Government reconstitutes Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority.

The Centre has reconstituted the Supreme Court-empowered Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority(EPCA). The tenure of the last EPCA expired on October 3.

The ministry said that while reconstituting the EPCA, it tried to broad-base the organisation and therefore brought in more members. Former secretary Bhure Lal continues to be the chairman, while the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) DG Sunita Narain is one of the members.

The other members of the 20-member re-constituted authority include Ajay Mathur, who is the Director General of The Energy Research Institute (TERI), Arunabha Ghosh, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Energy Environment and Water, Navroz K. Dubash, the Senior Fellow for the Centre for Policy Research among others.

The EPCA was constituted with the objective of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing and controlling the environmental pollution in the National Capital Region. The EPCA is also mandated to enforce Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the city as per the pollution levels.

In November, the EPCA had enforced several measures, including closure of the Badarpur thermal power plant, ban on brick kilns, hot mix plants and stone crushers, and construction activities.