In 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Forest published an :Environmental Impact Assessment Guidance Manual for Buildings, Construction, Townships and Area Development” projects. The objective of the document was to “bring clarity” to the process of giving environmental clearance to real estate projects. Environmental clearance given to projects is supposed to be based on compliance with the manual’s guidelines, which seek to ensure sustainable construction with the least possible damage to the environment. But amid expanding construction in Delhi and NCR, this rarely happens. “In our country, we have a lot of conditions and guidelines. But they are not being followed,” said former Central Pollution Control Board chairman B Sengupta, who was also the chairman of the core committee that drafted these guidelines. “You go to Gurgaon, for instance; each company will say it is following the norms. But the reality is different. For instance, rarely will you find a project that has planted a green belt to reduce emission. But they’ve all been given environmental clearance. Enforcement is very poor,” he said. The recommended measures are aimed at decreasing emission from vehicle and machinery during construction as well a reducing the amount of dust that is released into the air. Cover for scaffolding The cost of covering scaffolding remains the primary reason for not doing so. “The green netting that is required for covering scaffolding is not something that is cheap. At about Rs 30 per square foot or more — and there’s the additional cost of labour — it’s a cost that contractors will simply not take, unless developers have specifically asked for it. Developers award the contract to the lowest bidder, so unless it’s mandated in the contract, contractors won’t spend money on it,” said Gaurav Bajaj, a Noida-based contractor. Vegetation buffers The guideline calls for a dense belt of vegetation to absorb sulphur dioxide emission and airborne lead, and intercept dust. Evergreen trees have been found to be the most effective. But contractors said not only is this guideline not followed, sometimes the opposite is done by builders. “Planting trees can greatly reduce emissions, but it’s an extra cost that is simply not a part of the industries practices. In a number of cases, one finds that trees are chopped, and land use is changed to make green belts residential areas,” a contractor said. Air extraction Air extraction equipment can control fine stone and brick dust that could lead to silicosis, which is incurable. The equipment is very expensive. “In a country where labour is cheap and enforcement poor, buying expensive equipment that doesn’t directly impact the speed at which a project is completed is not a priority,” said the site manager of a project in Noida Extension. Hosing of roads This guideline mandates “sprinkling of water and fine spray from nozzles to suppress the dust”. Most developers choose not to do so. Even the ones who do prefer to use the groundwater they have extracted illegally. “Legally buying water tankers is much more expensive than simply drawing groundwater. Also, you need to hose down the area repeatedly in a day. This makes the cost huge,” said a site manager in Noida. Cleaning of vehicles Vehicles carrying construction material release a lot of dust. Ideally, the material should be hosed down and covered. “I get paid on the basis of trips in a day. When the sand being transported is often illegally mined, I’m not going to stop to cover the material. Wasted time means lost money,” said a tempo driver in Ghaziabad, who works near Loni. Containment of materials This guideline says “care should be taken to keep all material storages adequately covered and contained so that they are not exposed to situations where winds on site could lead to dust/particulate emissions”. Few builders, if any, put any priority on constructing a warehouse or bulk storage. Apart from the additional cost, there is no enforcement to prevent dumping of material on the project site either. Smoke from machinery Most regional pollution control boards in the National Capital Region being undermanned, this is another aspect that often escapes scrutiny. Balraj Ahluwat, head of the Gurgaon Pollution Control Board, said, “We only investigate industries if there is a specific complaint. As far as polluting vehicles are concerned, that’s the mandate of the transport department.” Cleaner fuel Clean fuel is not only expensive but also hard to find in a number of areas in the National Capital Region. Using cleaner fuel would require projects to buy their fuel from Delhi, which project managers say is unrealistic. “It’s impossible for us to buy fuel from Delhi and then travel all the way to Rajnagar in Ghaziabad or Noida Extension for our projects. This can only be considered if clean fuel is easily available and financial viable,” said a site manager in Gurgaon. Diesel generator sets The price difference between diesel generators that follow emission norms and local, cheaper sets is vast — Rs 50,000 to Rs 5.5 lakh. “A generator that follows all the norms can cost as much as Rs 5.5 lakh. On the other hand, one can buy a cheap generator near any project site for as low as 50,000. These will not be fuel-efficient and will smoke — but they will be cheap,” said Bajaj.
