Gurgaon: Five construction sites, including three in Udyog Vihar, were sealed in the city on Tuesday for violating dust-control norms during an enforcement drive by Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB). The board’s regional office (north) took action against the sites for violations of directions issued by Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) and non-compliance with requirements on HSPCB’s dust portal.After officials inspected equipment at the premises and as they found the sites in non-compliance, they put up notices at their respective gates. Officials said construction sites failing to comply with prescribed dust-control measures would face strict action. Inspections will continue across the region, they added.The enforcement action comes amid efforts by pollution-control authorities to curb dust emissions from construction activities, which contribute to particulate pollution in National Capital Region. Construction sites are required to follow dust-mitigation measures prescribed under applicable pollution-control directions. These include measures to prevent dust from escaping construction premises and compliance with monitoring and reporting requirements.HSPCB’s dust portal is used to monitor compliance by construction sites. The board cited violations of portal requirements among the reasons for taking action against the five sites. On Oct 30, CAQM announced a pause on construction and demolition activities across Delhi-NCR from Nov 5 to 20. The order prohibits demolition and construction work on highways, roads, flyovers and pipelines.Under earlier directives issued by CAQM, construction projects with a plot area of 500 square metres or more must register on the state’s dust mitigation portal and install geo-fenced pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras and low-cost PM2.5 and PM10 particulate sensors. Live camera feeds must be integrated with the state pollution control portal and CAQM’s Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) in Delhi through a real-time streaming protocol and application programming interfaces (APIs), enabling authorities to monitor construction sites remotely.
