New Delhi: The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has directed Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana to draft a three-year action plan to combat dust pollution from roads and open areas by the end of February.
The plan will prioritize urban and industrial areas and include measures such as end-to-end greening, paving of roads, pedestrian and cyclist pavements, and micro-surfacing.
This directive comes as Delhi continues to experience poor air quality year-round. Road dust contributes up to 58% of PM10 levels and 15-34% of PM2.5 levels, depending on the season.
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CAQM has issued a guidance document to the chief secretaries of the four states. “We have asked them to come up with an action plan based on the standard framework that we have developed based on the recommendation by a committee headed by CRRI (Central Road Research Institute) director M. Parida,” a senior official of CAQM told Mint.
“This will include end-to-end greening and paving of roads, laying of roads and micro surfacing, new roads where there are no roads, pavement for pedestrian and cyclists wherever there is space, beginning from 2025-26,” the official added.
It will also include the development of a road asset management system with a digital inventory of street-level data. This system will allow timely maintenance and better management of roads to minimize dust. “The whole idea is to reduce dust to maximum, knowing that dust is one of the major contributors to air pollution in Delhi and neighbouring states,” the CAQM official added.
Queries sent to chief secretaries of state governments of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan remained unanswered till press time.
Mint last week reported that the union government was crafting a comprehensive strategy, potentially including banning commercial vehicles with engines below BS-VI from entering Delhi, refusing fuel to end life vehicles, come up with norms to address road dust and strictly enforce construction norms in neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana, to curb air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
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Long-term measures
The commission in past years had taken measures like issuance directive for regular sweeping of roads and mechanized sweeping, sprinkling of water on roads and open areas, paving of non-paved roads, making the roads pothole free, greening of central verges and open areas, plantation of trees etc. to abate dust from roads and open areas. But this time, CAQM is focused on addressing it on a long-term basis.
Previously, measures such as mechanized sweeping, water sprinkling, pothole repairs, and greening of open areas were implemented, but this time, CAQM is focused on addressing it on a long-term basis.
A recent study by CSIR-NEERI (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) and CSIR-CRRI, Delhi recommended digital road mapping, condition surveys, and standardized operations for mechanized road sweeping machines. These measures aim to ensure consistent implementation of best practices in the region.
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“Every source that’s contributing to air pollution needs to be controlled. It’s not like that versus something else. All needs to be done systematically, and then we need to keep track of how efficiently we are controlling that particular source,” said Sagnik Dey, professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences in IIT Delhi.
There is a need to create interim indicators to understand how successful we are in addressing one source of pollution versus another source because, currently, there is no accountability in the whole ecosystem, he added. “What if people do not control that? Nothing is going to happen; the air quality will remain still bad. No one is answerable. Unless you create an indicator and that kind of framework to bring accountability on the board, progress will always be slow,” said Dey.
Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) remains a concern, with readings in the ‘severe’ category at 403 on Friday morning, underscoring the urgency to tackle road dust and other pollutants.
