Chandigarh: The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has blamed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), municipal council, and state’s public works department for the road dust and vehicular emissions that have worsened the air quality of industrial town Mandi Gobindgarh.
The board has now given the three authorities a show-cause notice on the charges of violating the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and directed them to correct course.
Punjab’s steel city Mandi Gobindgarh houses more than 600 factories in a 5-km radius.
IIT Delhi had found out in a board-commissioned source apportionment study that road dust contributed between 34% and 57% to the ambient air pollution of that place, while vehicular emissions contributed 13% to 31%. The factories account for another 23% to 24%.
In an action-taken report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the PPCB claimed that its team sent into the area had observed “severe disrepair and deterioration” of the roads, especially the major thoroughfares that include a 7-km stretch of the national highway from the Focal Point to Kumbh that Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) maintains.
The bad stretches include a PWD-maintained 4-km section of the Kumbh Road to Amloh, a 3-km RG Mill municipal route from the Railway Road to the national highway, and the NHAI’s service lanes along its highways. Several other roads need urgent repair or reconstruction. The PPCB also noted the congestion on major roads due to commercial vehicles, both heavy and light.
The PPCB instructed the NHAI to follow the construction and demolition waste rules and move this debris from the highway sides of Mandi Gobindgarh and Khanna to a designated landfill. The NHAI must remove loose earth from both sides of its routes and sprinkle the roads with treated wastewater at least twice a day to settle all the dust and emissions.
It has three months to grow suitable plants along both sides of the highways and engage with the district administration to address the issue of illegal parking along these routes. The NHAI must also coordinate with the district administration to check overloading. Together with the MC, it must repair and blacktop the potholes within a month. The municipal council will provide road-spray water from its sewage treatment plant (STP) at least twice a day, while also keeping litterbugs and solid waste burners in check.
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