Complying with the Commission for Air Quality Management’s (CAQM) direction, all 1,636 industrial units that were re-inspected twice in the month of October and November were found to have converted to clean fuels.
Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) carried out the re-inspection of 1,636 industries to check the use of fuel or Piped Natural Gas (PNG) and found out that all operating units are complying or using the latter as fuel, the Delhi government said in a report.
CAQM on December 2 directed that industrial operations and processes in the National Capital Region (NCR), not running on PNG or cleaner fuels, shall be allowed to operate only up to eight hours a day from Monday to Friday and shall not be allowed to operate on Saturdays and Sundays.
As per the report, a total of 2,447 industrial sites have been inspected from November 17 to 25. Of these, five were found defaulting which were shutdown and a fine of ₹20 lakh was imposed on them.
The inspection figure rose by 23% in December as the DPCC teams visited 3,002 sites from November 26 to December 6. Five industries found defaulting were shut down and a fine of ₹8.5 lakh was imposed.
The CAQM in its October report had stated that all the identified industries in the national capital have switched to cleaner fuels. However, the neighbouring states are yet to follow suit.
Use of non-cleaner fuels in the industries of either the capital or its adjoining regions affects the air quality adversely. As per the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) report, industries contributed 9.9-13.7% to air pollution in the national capital between October 24 and November 8 this year.
Delhi’s AQI improved slightly and settled in the ‘poor’ category at 256 on Monday morning, as per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research’s (SAFAR) estimates.
According to the air quality and weather bulletin for Delhi-NCR, “The air quality over Delhi-NCT is likely to deteriorate marginally and remain in poor to lower end of very poor category on December 13. The air quality is likely to remain in very poor category on December 14 and 15. The outlook for subsequent five days: The air quality is likely to remain in the ‘very poor’ category till December 16 and improve thereafter significantly.”
