Green walls along roads: How Gurgaon and Faridabad plan to fight dust pollution

GURGAON: To abate the impact of dust pollutants, the forest department is planning to develop green envelopes along roadsides in Gurgaon and Faridabad. A proposal for landscaping at least one stretch in each of the two districts during the upcoming plantation season has been sent to Chandigarh, officials said.
“We want to start greening roadside belts to mitigate dust pollution.This year, the plan is to take two stretches -- one each in Gurgaon and Faridabad,” chief conservator of forest (south Haryana) Vasavi Tyagi said.
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The two National Capital Region (NCR) districts, which over the years have topped the pollution charts in the country, have been struggling to introduce dust management measures. While civic agencies have been working towards identifying road dust hotspots and introduced mechanical sweeping, sprinkling and scientific disposal of collected waste, experts claimed that forest sinks were vital in mitigating dust pollution. Due to space constraints, they pointed out, green walls and similar structures should be promoted in urban areas. These, they claim, can help address more specific local problems of informal sources of pollution, fugitive emissions from small-scale units, open burning of waste and dust generation.
Unpaved and broken roads with no greening are the main contributors to dust pollution in the region, said Shubhansh Tiwari, a research associate at Amity Centre for Air Pollution Control. “Greening of road sidewalks, therefore, can be ideal in controlling dust pollution in the region,” he said.
As per the latest source apportionment studies for particulate matter, the dust potential of the construction sector and other associated sources was responsible for up to 41 per cent of PM10 generation in Delhi. Though a similar database is not available for Gurgaon and Faridabad, but as the two districts fall in the same airshed, their PM10 contribution of dust is likely to be in the same range.
The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) is also working on converting six pollution hotspots in Gurgaon into green ones. In Gurgaon, the six hotspots include Sector 86, Udyog Vihar Phase 1 to 2, Udyog Vihar Phase 3, Udyog Vihar Phase 4 to 5, Behrampur Road and Dwarka Expressway Sectors 110, 111 and 112. These hotspots, as per the board, have issues like unpaved roads, road patches and potholes causing dust emission and air pollution. The remedial measures will be taken by the local authorities including the civic body, HSIIDC, police, NHAI, forest department, MCM and GMDA.