Ghaziabad: After an order of Supreme Court (SC) of India, Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) will install anti-smog guns at buildings being constructed on or above 20,000 square meters of land to control pollution in the city. The department has started identifying the buildings and the list will be prepared soon, officials told.
The officials also said that the list will be submitted to Environmental Protection Control Authority (EPCA) for their review.
The whole process will be supervised by SC appointed EPCA. After the EPCA gives a go ahead, the GDA will implement the order through the builders. The officials said that the builders will have to install the anti-smog guns at their under construction projects.
A rough estimate by GDA suggests that there are at least 30 points where anti-smog guns will be installed. “However, the picture will be cleared once the officials' list gets passed from EPCA,” said Sanjay Kumar, Officer on Special Duty in GDA.
Last week, the Supreme Court had directed that anti-smog guns should be used in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) at large construction sites, road construction stretches, mining activities, large parking sites on unpaved areas, during large public gatherings, demolition activities and while sprinkling on dust-prone traffic corridors.
The court made it compulsory for authorities to use anti-smog guns in Delhi-NCR at the site of projects that require environmental clearance from the State/Central level and which have a built-up area of more than 20,000 square meter, including excavation, material handling and other dust-generating activities. The authorities would have to prepare a “pollutor pays” policy to cover the cost of installation of the anti-smog guns.
What is anti-smog gun and how it works?
The anti-smog guns are quite popular in Chinese cities. The gun sprays water in the air vertically that pushes down dust particles scattered in the air to settle down on the ground. The machine forces water with pressure up to 50 meters high in the air in the form of spray. The water spray comes down with dust, carbon and other fumes to settle down on the ground while the moisture makes grip over pollutants and let them rests on the ground only.
The cost of anti-smog guns varies between Rs 5 to 15 lakh. One anti-smog gun can effectively reduce pollution within 500 square meters of an area. China claimed that its usage reduced 20 per cent pollution at Beijing.
