Pollution is still a major issue in Delhi-NCR and industry is also facing the same. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has passed an order to keep all industries in the National Capital Region (NCR), which have not switched to the usage of piped natural gas (PNG), shut till 12 December.
Overall 477 industries in Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida will remain closed due to this order.
This order does mention that it will be reviewed further, but four days still seem to be very little to have any major impact on the pollution levels.
Utsav Sharma, Regional Officer, Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), Ghaziabad, said the polluting industries in Noida are mostly related to textile and engineering as well as forging and metallurgy.
Industry has been reacting strongly on this. Rajiv Arora, General Secretary, Industrial Area Manufacturers Association, Ghaziabad said, “All industries follow the pollution norms and file compliances regularly. However, shutting industries delays domestic supply as well as export orders and leads to non-productive manhours, which impacts the overall growth of the economy. Eventually, the entire production line is disturbed. Contacts in Faridabad’s textile industries said export orders worth thousands of crores are on hold.”
It is worth mentioning here that Ghaziabad has the maximum share of overall polluting industries. Of the 500 air polluting industries in Ghaziabad, about 80 have either switched to the usage of cleaner fuel like PNG or don’t have the infrastructure for the supply of the fuel in their area yet. The remaining 421 industries are still using coal for their operations and, hence, will remain closed.
Apart from many organised units in Delhi-NCR, there are hundreds of unorganised units and most of them are not using PNG.
